{"id":607,"date":"2009-10-25T13:40:45","date_gmt":"2009-10-25T18:40:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/byers\/wp\/?p=607"},"modified":"2009-12-18T21:23:07","modified_gmt":"2009-12-19T02:23:07","slug":"the-day-my-dog-saw-an-alligator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/byers\/wp\/?p=607","title":{"rendered":"The day my dog saw an alligator"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Freddy was not my dog; I mean, I didn&#8217;t own him.\u00a0 We had not arrived at any such contractual arrangement.\u00a0 I can&#8217;t imagine that I could have made the terms attractive enough for him, and I don&#8217;t think the nature of our relationship would have benefitted in any case.\u00a0 Rather, he sort of came with a house I lived in for a while.\u00a0 He advised me, within the first day or two of my arrival, that I would be providing him meals from time to time when he was not able to procure them for himself.\u00a0 He would be providing cultured company and alerts, should they be needed, upon the arrival of visitors to our midst.<\/p>\n<p>Judging by his tail and ears, Freddy must have been a distant offshoot of the <a id=\"npeq\" title=\"terrier\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Terrier_Group\">terrier<\/a> clan.\u00a0 Not big, not small, his curly tail rather circulated than wagged.\u00a0 Mostly white with a few black and tan spots, he was trim and struck a fine figure, with an intelligent gaze and bearing.\u00a0 In addition to his fine appearance, he proved to be an accomplished <a id=\"me9q\" title=\"diplomat\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Diplomat\">diplomat<\/a>, always finding a way around conflict with his fellow canines.\u00a0 He was equally at ease with people, self-sufficient and, unlike so many other dogs, never needy.<\/p>\n<p>Everyone seems to think they have the <a id=\"txkj\" title=\"smartest\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Intelligence_quotient\">smartest<\/a> dog ever minted, even when that clearly is not the case.\u00a0 I wonder if dogs are more realistic when assessing the intellect of their <a id=\"lmgq\" title=\"human\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Human\">human<\/a> companions.\u00a0 I believe Freddy may have downplayed intellect as one of my redeeming characteristics when discussing me with his friends.\u00a0 If so, it is only because I may have disappointed him from time to time.\u00a0 For example, when he got excited about something, he often came to me to get my view and perspective.\u00a0 Just as often, he left frustrated having been unable even to begin the discussion, myself, being as I am, so dim.\u00a0 Yet he must have found a few redeeming qualities because he stayed and stayed.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Sneaky!\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/byers\/wp-img\/memoir\/alligator.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"270\" align=\"right\" \/>Once, on a trip to the <a id=\"gigq\" title=\"Everglades\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Everglades\">Everglades<\/a> and the <a id=\"ashn\" title=\"Florida Keys\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Florida_Keys\">Florida Keys<\/a>, he found occasion to see that I might be of some small use after all.\u00a0 We had stopped at a little park on one of the minor keys (sorry for that one).\u00a0 We walked back into some undergrowth until we found a little pond, less than 30 yards across with fairly steep banks all around.\u00a0 Freddy was not native to those climes and had never seen an <a id=\"s0_o\" title=\"alligator\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Alligator\">alligator<\/a>, but there was one in the middle of the pond that most certainly had seen little dogs before and had grown quite fond of them.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>As Freddy trotted down to the water&#8217;s edge, this five-foot specimen gave one leisurely wave of his tail and began floating effortlessly toward him.\u00a0 The alligator was some five yards away from the bank&#8211;and Freddy&#8211;when I called him to sit beside me some 15 feet up the bank.\u00a0 He sat there, quite close to me and followed my gesture as I pointed to the &#8220;log&#8221; floating in the water.<\/p>\n<p>Immediately, his brow furrowed deeply, and he began to tremble.\u00a0 As he looked from me to the alligator and back, his regard took on an aspect of genuine, heartfelt gratitude.\u00a0 I believe at that time he adjudged that he indeed &#8220;owed me one,&#8221; and came to think this might not have been the\u00a0 totally one-sided relationship he had taken it for after all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Freddy was not my dog; I mean, I didn&#8217;t own him.\u00a0 We had not arrived at any such contractual arrangement.\u00a0 I can&#8217;t imagine that I could have made the terms attractive enough for him, and I don&#8217;t think the nature of our relationship would have benefitted in any case.\u00a0 Rather, he sort of came with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[25],"class_list":["post-607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-memoirs","tag-life-events"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/byers\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/byers\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/byers\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/byers\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/byers\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=607"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/byers\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":654,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/byers\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607\/revisions\/654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/byers\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/byers\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/byers\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}