August 24, 2010

Cinnamon has had a good week again.  It started early last week when I woke up, made breakfast, and sat down to watch the morning news.  As I ate my Leaping Lemurs cereal, Shakespeare the cat decided that he needed chocolate milk.  I shooed him away from the glass, and finished my drink.   After I set my glass down, he decided that if he knocked it over, he might still be able to get some milk out of it.  We went through a bit of kabuki theatre with him pawing the glass, me scolding him, and then repeating the drama.  Finally, I decided to take it to the kitchen.

When I returned, the cat was drinking the milk out of my cereal and smiling at me.  I took the cereal away from him, but throwing it out seemed a waste.  I decided to let Cinn finish it, which she did with alacrity.  She gulped down the milk and cereal quickly before coming to sit beside me, now wide awake.  Employing her puppy eyes, she convinced me to take her to the dog park, even though it was five thirty in the morning. 

As we played at the park, a couple with two dogs-- one little old golden retriever and one puppy labradoodle-- came in to visit us.  Cinn ran around the park with the labradoodle, while Dutch (the golden retriever) hit me up for dog treats and pets.  She had a wonderful time playing with them, and the couple that brought them talked to me about dogs and dog parks in Merritt, as the woman was from Kelowna.

Eventually, we got home.  We spent the rest of the morning outside together, watering the garden. Poor Tracie was inside resting her sore back, but Cinn enjoyed her one on one time.  Following the watering, we made lunch on the barbecue, which Cinn got to partake of as well.

Fast forwarding to yesterday, she was able to attend the park again, this time with Tracie.  We ran into a little guy from the local optical shop, with his two dogs.  One small puppy and one large, old, ex police dog.  The bigger dog snapped at Cinn on his way in, but then left her alone when I gave him a strong, "No".  The little optical shop guy said, "No, let them work it out.".

I took my usual tact when confronted with a stranger who thinks that he knows best for my animal, when he obviously does not, and politely ignored him.  I walked around with the dogs, and briefly talked with the man.  He told me that we did not need to worry because his dog never fought or bit anyone.  Then he amended this to, his dog only bit fifteen people, but it was an ex police dog that never broke the skin.  Then he said that his dog never got into fights.  Then he amended that to be his dog never got in fights, except with pitbulls who really could not hurt him because of his long hair.  Then he further amended it to include coyotes, which he allowed or encouraged it to fight because they could stalk smaller dogs.

At this point, I walked over closer to Cinnamon, who was closer to his dog.  He continued to talk to Tracie, when his dog snapped at Cinnamon once again.  I gave it a strong desist, which it fortunately did.  The little guy apparently told Trace at this point that it was just because our dog was obnoxious.  I'm not sure what she was doing that was obnoxious because she was laying in the grass at the time and bending over in what is a clear invitation to play-- in dog terms a "play bow".

It was a clear case of user bias in his observations.  It highlights the dangers of user bias for me because his previous discussion had been about the fact that his dog's fights did not really count because his fur was thick enough that pitbulls could not hurt it.  Based on previous experience and putting zen self perceptions aside, I know that if the dog had moved on Cinn, it would have been in a fight.  Unfortunately for it, since I won't let a dog fight Cinn, the fight would not have been with her.  Previous experience tells me that a thick coat only protects so much from a kick in the ribs. 

We gathered Cinn up and left without problems.  It was very fortunate in my opinion that the dog stopped because he seemed a pleasant enough man, whose attitudes unfortunately led to some poor behaviors on the part of his canine companion.  We'll have to watch out for the man's dog when we attend the park in future.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

I have not kept up lately as faithfully as I should.  Cinn has had a really good couple of weeks though.  She's been to the park daily, had to spend some time with Shannon and Petal (who she really seems to like), and has gone to Kamloops with Tracie and I.  Throughout it all, she was her usual, smiling self.

The day in Kamloops, however, was not without stress.  We went to Tracie's wool store, and Cinn and I had a coffee at Starbucks next door.  She made friends with the girl who was cleaning the patio, got smiles from nearly everyone, and pets from a few passers by.  After that, we went to several stores to do our grocery shopping.  Between Coopers and the health food store, we obtained everything but Tracie's coffee.  She thought that we might as well go home without it, but I told her that we might as well check out Zellers first. 

Tracie went into the store, while I sat outside with Cinn.  The sun was very hot that afternoon, so we could not just leave her alone in the car.  Scanning the parking lot and seeing no one else there, I thought that it was probably a good time to let her out to go to the bathroom.  She hopped out, but immediately began limping and hopping.  I moved to pick her up, but she started walking normally.  She did her business, walked around again, and started hopping and limping.  Strangely enough, she stopped again when I moved to pick her up. 

Thinking that she was just being stubborn, I walked her back toward the car on her leash.  As we moved, she began the hopping and limping again.  This time, however, I thought that I knew the origin.  I led her back into the shadow of the building, where she stopped carrying on nearly immediately.  I realized at this point that the pavement was so hot that my pup was burning her feet whenever we walked on the part that the sun was hitting.  When she stood in the part that was shaded by the building, the heat was bearable. 

Feeling a lot better, I bundled her into the car.  Trace came out shortly.  Following that, we grabbed some food for supper and headed home.