Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Dog Haiku

My husband and I like to take photographs.

Every year we put together a calendar for our dog park as a fundraiser. The date pages usually have a quote related to dogs on a banner at the bottom of the page. This year the calendar committee decided that haiku written by dogs was a good idea, so I searched the web to see what I could find.

Every website I checked had the same dozen or so haikus. Some were pretty good, but I was irritated that everyone was just copying the same stuff over and over, and I didn't want to perpetuate that habit in our calendar, so I decided to write my own.

17 syllables (give or take). How hard could it be?

Not easy at all, as it turned out. I struggled with some of them for days, and I'm still not completely satisfied with my effort--but the calendar has a deadline, so here they are as they appear in the 2017 Canine Corners dog park calendar.
December 2016--our memorial page for dogs who died during the year. Dennis Rifkin took this photo of his dog, Beau, who passed away a few months later.
January 2017
February 2017
March, 2017--This dog kept running up to me & trying to put her nose on my lens .
April 2017
May 2017--I was pleased to get a photo of a dog barking.
June 2017

July 2017



August 2017. The front dog is our border collie, Caitlin.

September 2017
October 2017
November 2017
December 2017
Here are links to some of the dog haiku I found on the web
This looks like the original author: http://dan.drydog.com/patsyann/doghaiku.html
Another set that might be original (& with photos) http://www.dogster.com/bolz/10-dog-haiku-poems-by-dogs
http://aldf.org/blog/dog-haiku/
http://adoptmountainpets.org/pet-column/item/dog-haiku
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/humor.html
http://rebeccasanthology.weebly.com/anonymous-dog-haiku.html



Saturday, September 3, 2016

Pawprints on my Heart

The day we arrived in England, our hosts took us for a walk around the largest of 5 or 6 lakes on their extensive property.
The lake from their back deck
Their house dogs came with us: Milo, Millie, Scooter, Willie, and Meg.
Milo and Millie feeling hopeful
Meg

While the people chatted, the dogs raced ahead scouting for rabbits. I lagged far behind taking photographs.

I was kneeling to get a low angle on the scene ahead, when suddenly Scooter came bounding back and threw himself into my arms.
Scooter
The experience was less rewarding than it might have been, as Scooter had only just finished rolling in fox poop--which I can now tell you from personal experience smells just as bad as you'd expect.. It also  has staying power. Scooter and I both smelled like fox poop for several days.

The next morning, as I was lounging in a chair outside the kitchen, Scooter came bounding up and leaped into my lap.
He was often on my lap
The experience was less rewarding than it might have been, as Scooter had only just emerged from a cooling dip in the lake, and he now smelled of wet-dog-who-has recently-rolled-in-fox-poop --besides being dripping wet..
Scooter after a dip
Scooter quickly trained both Rob and me to hit tennis balls for him. He never got tired, and if he got hot, he simply made a quick detour into the lake before returning with the ball,
A game he never tired of
I get up early.  Every morning I'd go down to the kitchen, where the dogs are confined at night, and make myself a cup of tea. Then I'd go into the sun room and sit on the couch to drink it. Scooter would always come with me, plop onto the couch beside me, and lay his head in my lap while I drank my tea.
I was beginning not to care that he still smelled faintly of fox poop.

It is almost impossible not to fall in love with an animal who tells you at every opportunity that you are the most wonderful person he's ever met.

And Scooter did.

He waited patiently for Rob & me to return from our day trips, even refusing to leave with the other dogs when Clare took them out for walks. He wriggled from head to toe the minute we entered the room.

Usually we'd get the tennis racket out and one of us would hit balls for him. If we sat down instead, he'd get a ball and push it in between our bottoms & the chair back.

Scooter loves balls just as much as Caitlin does, but unlike Caitlin, he's not pushy about it. When I stopped hitting his ball, he'd trot happily back to the house beside me and cuddle instead. No shrill bark or laser-like stare to intimidate me into doing his bidding. No imperious paw slapped down onto my book or computer if I wasn't paying attention to him.

Scooter is a comfortable dog, the sort who would sit by the fire with you while you read & sipped brandy, and never ask for anything more than to be close beside you..

Unlike Caitlin (also known as  "psycho-dog" at the dog park), who is frenetic demanding, always busy, and wants your full attention NOW!

Clare rescued Scooter about 4 years ago from a family who basically never paid him any attention. Now he gets several walks a day. He can roam unfettered across 140 acres of farmland that has rabbits to chase, a lake to swim in, and fox poop if he feels like rolling.

But Clare says he's not really happy. He doesn't want to be one of a pack. He wants to be an only dog. Apparently he wants to be OUR dog. And she'd let us have him if we asked.
I couldn't help but love him
We are totally smitten with him, and we'd love to have him. He has left his paw prints on our hearts.

But we can't give him what he needs, although he doesn't know that.

We didn't take him back with us.

It feels like a betrayal.