Sophie is a Bitch

Hello Everyone,

Wednesday is archive day, so here's a piece I wrote on Aug. 17, 2015

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The subject line of this email is literally true. But it's also figuratively true, because while the Soph Hound is very affectionate with her people, if you aren't part of that select group, she has, at best, no time for you. At worst, it's open contempt.

We meet a lot of people in the dog park, and it's rare that she gives any one of them the time of day. Unless they have dog treats, in which case she's in to get hers. But that's very transactional. Her crotchety behaviour is never more apparent than when some other party is full of enthusiasm. The other day at the dog park, there was a 4-month-old Golden Retriever puppy, and you'd have to be a pretty cold, heartless bastard to not fall for this soft, wriggling bundle of exuberance. He straight-up loved everyone he came across. Sophie still hated him. I'm sure you could make a heartwarming movie about this little guy wearing down her cold exterior and winning her over. But we only ever got the opening scenes of that movie because the law wouldn't let us dognap the little guy. He was the kind of happy that is super excited about every single aspect of life. He came running over to us, trying to furiously wag his big tail while still learning how all his limbs work in coordination. He wanted to be petted, wanted to sniff Sophie and Arthur, sniff the ground, and play with anyone in vicinity, and he wanted to do it all at once. Arthur was happy to check him out, but didn't wrestle. I like to believe it's because Arthur didn't want to hurt a puppy. Instead, he was mildly curious, and then mostly ignored the little tyke. Sophie, on the other hand, was having none of this nonsense. When he got too curious and invaded her wide bubble of personal space, she made her displeasure quite clear and growled at him to go away. Her attitude did about as much to dim his enthusiasm as a garden hose in a forest fire, so he wasn't very put out. Nor was he deterred from coming back several times to see if she had changed her mind about playing with him. She had not.

#Sophie #Dogs