Dog day weekend

As you guys were moving into the sixth heat wave of the year, we were moving into a red Ford Edge loaner to get us 5 hours away, to the Berkshires in western Massachusetts. 

Mountains = cooler temps.

But the long-weekend vacation was only partially weather-motivated. The major motivation was to visit my daughter, and the travelers were tense.

Tense because my Berner daughter and I have different political ideas, one being how much the government ought to hand out for free.  The other source of tension was that we were bringing our Shih Tzu mix, nicknamed Nut Bag, all 20 pounds of him. Daughter has a strong, handsome, 60-pound  Australian cattle dog mix, who is calm and friendly.

Nut Bag is neither, to other dogs.

The two dogs had met once before, in Philadelphia, with everything being wonderful. My daughter’s version.

Nut Bag growled and snapped when my daughter’s dog got too close. That is my version, supported by Half Pint. 

I call my daughter’s dog Lancelot, because he is handsome, and brave. He has treed a couple of bears who invaded my daughter’s spacious yard. 

For the benefit of new readers, I don’t use the names of family, friends, or even dogs, because the tree of the internet is populated with some useless sloths with nothing better to do than cause trouble.

Daughter and I agreed when we arrived she would greet us outside her house with both dogs leashed.

That was the first plan to be discarded.

Well, it was outside, and they were leashed, but it was just as we got out of the car. Nut Bag was delighted to see my daughter, whom he has seen many times. He loves her. Most critters, except Republicans, do.

He gave Lancelot a fish eye, but otherwise ignored him.

That was a victory. 

 Lancelot is such a good boy, he’s 6 ½, he didn’t object when Nut Bag picked up some of his toys. Some dogs would react violently to his space, and possessions, being invaded. But, as I said, Lancelot is a good boy.

There was no growling, and Nut Bag seemed to accept the presence of the much larger dog. Nut Bag got so casual, he even walked under Lancelot once or twice.

He happily shared my sister with Lancelot when she was in bed. He got to be a real, off-leash dog in the woods behind my daughter’s house. Little Nut Bag the. seemed to enjoy the freedom of running free in the woods, much more than visits to the dog park, which we suspended because he wasn’t having fun. He felt bullied by the other dogs.  Here he discovered his true dog inner self.

Knowing the two dogs could be trusted alone in the same room was important.

This may sound strange to anyone who hasn’t lived with a dog, but it is a responsibility not only to keep them fed and healthy, but happy, too.

This means we can have them together in the future with no worries.

It’s as if two quarrelsome siblings suddenly decided to bury the hatchet, kiss, and make up. 

We did a bunch of other stuff, too, but the takeaway memory is dogs having fun.