In this picture are Noah, the Golden Retriever at the forefront, Cody, another Golden, and Cody, a Husky. The two Codys are Noah’s karmic buddies, the ones he wrestles with, chases, the three of them tearing around the dog park despite the thick humidity, the awful heat. I suppose this might be a cluster synchro – two Codys, two Goldens. But maybe not. But it’s certainly a story for a hot summer afternoon.
In the picture, they’re sprawled in a makeshift pool we created with a tarp and a depression near the faucet/hose. All three dogs are rescues. It means there’s some trauma, from somewhere in their early lives. But these three guys know their traumas and issues aren’t anywhere near what a new arrival experienced.
The new dog (no pic, sorry) arrived yesterday, a friendly pooch, a mixed breed, his tail whipping back and forth, and trotted up to all the humans on the benches for pats, a few kind words, and then trotted off to sniff and investigate. But because the pooch was new to the park, Noah and the two Codys crowded around him with a dozen others dogs, sniffing, investigating, doing what dogs do with their sense of smell. The pooch got kind of freaked out and scurried under the bench where his humans sat.
Noah and the two Codys neared the bench, watching him, reading him. Then they all got up and ran after a football that Rob kicked out into the field. They never got aggressive or crowded around the pooch again. In those few moments that pooch was under the bench and the Noah and his buddies crowded around, I think pooch’s trauma was communicated. And from that moment on, it was hands off in the dog park. This dude has been through something bad and we’re not going to bug him.
Pooch is a rescue from Hurricane Katrina. According to his human, he spent three months on top of a truck, tethered to a 35-foot chain, in flood waters that had reached the windshield of the truck when he was saved. He barely tipped the scale at 25 pounds. Today, he weighs 75 pounds.
“My friend called and said she had this dog that needed me,” his human said. “He’d been found on top of a truck in the flood after Hurricane Katrina. She sent me pictures. I thought, ‘Oh shit, I can’t take another dog.’ But she did, and $5,000 and six years later, pooch is apparently flourishing.
“I had him flown to Florida from New Orleans and as soon as he landed, he went to the vet,” his human said. “The prognosis wasn’t good. For the first three months, he wouldn’t let me touch him. All he did was eat.”
As she was telling us the pooch’s story, Noah and the two Codys were crowded around the bench under which pooch had taken refuge. I think that was when pooch was telling his own version of the story, communicating it in the way dogs do, silent eye contact, body language, panting, a kind of telepathy.
Before we left the park that day, pooch was in the makeshift pool with Noah and the two Codys, cooling off. Unfortunately, the camera on my Blackberry had stopped working. But the next time these four dudes are together, sharing histories, I’ll snap a photo. Even in this photo, there’s a message here about camaraderie, hope, acceptance, and a comfort code to which dogs adhere.
I just got back from seeing the movie “Red Dog” and wow!! What a movie that was!
If I was an investor in that movie and didn’t make a lot of money back out of it,I would be scratching my head as to why.They’ve fleshed the book out and made it even funnier and sadder at the same time,if you can believe that?
If it goes to the States,which I’m sure it will,then go see it on the big screen and take a box of tissues.
I was quite choked up coming out of the cinema,I’ll tell you…but it was worth it.Definitely going on my “To Buy” list of DVDs.
Cheers / Daz
I apparently need a life just to read books and watch movies! thanks for the tip, Daz. On to the list it goes!
P.S. Trish, I wonder why Pooch hasn’t been back to the dog park. Maybe it’s been too hot for the humans to bring him and he’ll come back when it’s cooler. Could be his humans just can’t hamdle this unprecedented heat we’re having.
The humans are going to need their own doggie pool!
Same in our house, Nancy. “Daddy” is the fun one. Sunshine can evidently hear his vehicle when it turns onto our street because he comes home in the evenings at no set time; it’s a different time each day, but the dog trots over to the front door with her ears perked up, watching through the glass, and surely enough, in a minute or two he pulls into the driveway. Her chewed-up Nyla bones are her babies and she totes them around with her to whatever room I happen to roost in. She waits to see if I’m going to stay put, then she gets her bones and brings them. I’m concerned about an upcoming trip we must take without her next month. She’ll be boarded for the first time in her life because all our entire family, sons and their familes, are going to a huge wedding in the Smoky Mountains. There’s no one to care for Sunshine, so she’s going to a fancy pet spa here for the duration. I already know she’s going to suffer severe separation anxiety in spite of the fact that the place is unique and wonderful. It’s just that she’s never been away from me longer than a few hours because she goes where I go, and she gets sullen and unhappy when she sees me getting my stuff together and picking up the house keys if her special halter isn’t coming out. She goes to a corner and lays her head under a chair, not looking at me. I’m worried about being away from her for several days and nights, and am hoping she’ll make friends with at least a few of the other dogs there. Their private kennels are air-conditioned with attached runs; they have a large swimming pool for the dogs and each dog gets specific specialized individual care according to its needs and whatever it’s used to. It’s equivalent to a human spa. But she’s going to mourn and feel abandoned. I know this. Just don’t know what to do about it except talk to her and hope somehow in her canine mind she’ll understand we’re coming back for her. Since she’s a service dog I could take her with us but it wouldn’t be in her best interest on this trip. I feel like a mama taking her young child to kindergarten for the first time and leaving my child in someone else’s hands!! Don’t know who will suffer more, Sunshine or me!! 🙂
While is was doing a review on Louis de Bernieres’s book “Red Dog” on “Amazon UK”,
I checked to see if “Synchronicity and the Other Side: Your Guide to Meaningful Connections with the Afterlife ” was available there too…which it was.
So I copied my review from the US site and put it over on the UK site,where there wasn’t any reviews of it yet.
Both of your books – Louis’s book and your book,I would highly recommend as good reads to anyone out there thinking of making a purchase.
(You know where to send the commissions to…that goes for you too,Louis .-)
Opps…that should read “While I….” not “While is…”
I swear I haven’t been drinking…maybe that’s the problem ?-)
Thanks, Daz. We’ll let you know if any readers tell us that your review nudged them to buy the book!
Don’t worry the commission thing is just a joke…put that cheque book back in the draw.-)
Wow. This one almost made me cry. Touching story. Thank you. I Would love to see a picture too.
Here’s the odd thing – the katrina dog hasn’t been back to the park since the day I wrote this post!
Thanks so much, Nancy. Yes indeed, Labs are highly telepathic. I think that is why they are used so often in all branches of service: working canines for the handicapped, search and rescue dogs after disasters, war dogs, law enforcement canines, bomb sniffers, missing persons canines, and “patient caregiving canines” for hospitalized children and the elderly, etc etc etc. Of course they aren’t the only breeds used in these arenas, but they frequently are. Sunshine is like your Lab: she tries to communicate vocally with us and we’ve learned her language and her expressions. She “grins” and rolls on her back with her feet in the air when she’s playing….looks like an upside-down crocodile!! Sometimes now, though, she will simply stand in front of me gazing into my eyes with a new look. I asked her what she needs….expect any day that she will open her mouth and answer me in our language!! I think most domestic animals who are members of families tend to develop specific means of communicating with their humans, and it’s a two-way street. What would we do without them!!
I feel the same way about Lucy. One of these days words are going to come out of her mouth when I ask her what she wants, LOL! She is so tuned into the two of us – especially my husband who is the fun one. We have always had dogs. We got married to have puppies, (one of the first thing we did after getting married was get a Golden), and will probably die with a dog at our feet. They love unconditionally and ask for so little in return. Truly – what would we do without them?
Pooch has quite a story to tell – thanks to his human. Fascinating how animals communicate.
This was a great story. (I feel so bad for Matt and Sunshine, Math. That event must have been so awful for everyone.) We have had goldens and now we have labs in our family and I know for a fact that they have telepathy – even with humans. How often do we stop what we are doing and pay attention to our dog who is looking at us from across the room? My dog has mostly been around just my husband and myself for most of her life. (Empty nest dog.) Now she is trying to “talk.” Little growls and whoofs when I talk to her.
I hope pooch continues to enjoy his pack. He deserves a good set of friends.
Speaking of Dogs,I’m half way through the book Louis de Bernieres wrote called
“Red Dog”.It’s one of the many books I bought at the Byron Bay Writer’s Festival last weekend.I like it because it is short and sweet,at only 120 pages,and that’s counting the glossary.I’ll be doing a syncro report on my blog about it in a few days time,because it’s a book the I probably would never have read if I had not have run into Louis at the festival,and saw the picture of the kingfisher and the owl in his illustrated version of the book.For dog lovers out there I can grantee that you will like this book.I’m hoping to see the movie version of it tomorrow at the local cinema.I just hope it is as good as the book.The trailer is here;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTExiWzvJlo
but I don’t think it really shows the spirit of the book in that trailer,but I’ll give a little review to you all after I see it.
I feel like buying a copy of “Captain Corelli’s Mandolin”now,and seeing how good that is.
Speaking of reviews,I’ve just put my 5 star review of
“Synchronicity and the Other Side” up on Amazon.I took a few quotes from the book and used them in my review.I hope you don’t mind.
Cheers / Daz
Thanks, Daz! Another book to my BUY list. Thanks for the tip.
It’s a very short book and I read it in two sittings…and I’m not a fast reader.
To anybody out there in Blogland that would like to read a very nice little book based on a real life legend
(not that I had ever heard of this dog before) then here is the link to Amazon that will tell you all about it,and how you an buy it…but grab the illustrated version if you can.There are some great drawings in there,especially of a kingfisher and an owl,among other great pics.
https://www.amazon.com/Red-Dog-LOUIS-BERNIERES/dp/B0007XAX02/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1313279299&sr=1-1
Also in the photo the first thing I noticed was that Huskie Cody has a front paw comfortably resting on top of #Cody’s leg, in the same kind of companionable “touching” that we humans engage in when we leisurely hold hands. Our family’s very recent experience with the sudden unprovoked attack by Kenny’s Great Dane Matt against my Lab/Ridgeback Sunshine was a lesson in canine communication. Although Sunshine’s physical wounds have almost healed, she remains severely traumatized. Most of the mush heads here already know that Sunshine is a service dog, highly intelligent and trained to be civil but aloof to both humans and other animals, except her alpha human, who is me, and she’s attached to me at the hip, practically an extension of my own body. Danes are not genetically disposed to be aggressive dogs. They are gentle giants. But Kenny adopted him less than a year ago from a couple who had obviously abused him. He was skin stretched over bone, and extremely submissive. He loved being petted and handled and was so grateful for the slightest attention from us, so we poured it on him constantly. He couldn’t seem to get enough, and would come lay his huge head in our laps, waiting for the ear scratching, etc. (He was so enormous he had to bend down to lay his head in our laps!!) His eyes showed such deep expressions of love. We didn’t know he had brain cancer until it was too late. Anyway, about Sunshine….
Matt’s attack has left my canine soul mate traumatized to the point where she flinches and jumps even if I touch her without letting her first know I’m going to touch her, and I feel her trembling for a few seconds and will let my fingers just gently stroke her until she stops. It’s tragic. This is an animal who doesn’t react to storms, fireworks, etc. She’s very focused and has a human vocabulary of several hundred words. (Hard to believe, but is true.) Vet says she’ll eventually move past the trauma of the attack. I’m not so sure. And, I have a theory about Matt’s attack besides the fact that he was dying and vet said the vicious attack against Sunshine was the initial symptom of the grand mal seizure he was having. Here’s my theory: Sunshine has advanced mammary cancer that has metastasized to her right lung, so I had released her from service although she refuses to stop “working”, and since it makes her a happy dog, I let her do as she wishes. But…I believe Matt could detect the scent of her illness that humans can’t detect, and the scent of her illness may have provoked his awful attack. He tried to kill her. Animals will sometimes do that to a sick animal, and Matt himself, unknown to us, was very sick himself. Your story about the dog park is incredibly revealing about the communication that goes on between animals, and the behavior that results from the communication. I was thrilled to read that Pooch has become a member of the Three Musketeers and that they have accepted Pooch. he now belongs to a “den”, and dogs are pack animals. That’s such a happy ending….or beginning!!!…for Pooch. Love that photo! The body language screams “BFF”!!
ok, on second glance, maybe noah’s head is a bit out of the circle, but the overall body directions seem very circular to me! 😉
It looks circular to me, too!
pooch’s story: what an incredible story of survival and strength and courage! what a creature he must be! and what an incredible interaction of canine cousins at the park! love this story – and odd you’ve a doggie story today as day before yesterday my daughter’s 7yr old mixed lab/beagle [yes, what a mix! bless her heart] tore the ACL in one of her hind legs and can barely muster around – the vet said surgery might help but no real guarantee – she also has severe hip dysplasia – in any event, since her injury, della has been in a lot of pain [although much better now with the meds] and will come sit wherever i am and just look at me – her eyes absolutely speaking! i’ve always been so taken with the language of the eyes – and our canine cousins have captured the “best” category in that one – so the part of pooch under his human’s bench and the codys and noah communicating is really meaningful to me – and did you notice in the photo that the position of the doggies forms a circle, with the individual directions of their heads? – love the photo – and great story!
Ouch ACL, double ouch! Poor Della. Hope she improves!