Sunday, September 4, 2011

My Dog Doobie

My favorite sign in Central Park is the one next to the pond that says, "No dogs allowed in water."  It's my favorite, because to my knowledge, even seeing eye dogs are illiterate, and so the sign makes me smile as I think of a dog running right past the sign and jumping into the water, attempting to fetch a stick that an illiterate 5 year old named Billy tossed into the water.

The nearby park officer may be frustrated with the dog (named Sparky) for his blatant disregard for the sign, but really it's not Sparky's fault.  He can't read. 

I selected the name Sparky for my hypothetical dog because that was the name of my Dad's dog; he sounded like a great dog, but I never got to meet him because he was dead before I arrived on the scene.

But I did get to meet Doobie... my family took Doobie in when some lady from our church showed up up on our doorsteps in tears because she was getting married to man who already had 4 or 5 kids, and he didn't want the dog.

The woman's tears convinced my mom, and my mom convinced my Dad, and within a few months of taking Doobie into our home, we were all convinced we had made a miserable, but undoable mistake.

We probably should have read the warning signs,

I mean first of all, the dog's name is/was Doobie...








 (I understand that the sign is intended for the dog's owner; however, the sign appears to address the dog rather than the human who is accompanying the dog.)



  If I believed in reincarnation (which I don't) and came back as a dog (which, if I had to reincarnate as an animal, I'd prefer to return as a dolphin - I think...as long as I didn't get suckered into working at Sea World.  I wouldn't want to do that for my dolphin career.  Movies on the other hand - I wouldn't mind being featured in a National Geographic documentary...)

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