Buddy the Master

Well tonight I went for a bike ride with Tracey down at the marina. We were having a great time until she blew a tire. I tried to pump it up and all but it literally blew the tire. So we came home and had some dinner and we were about to sit down and watch some TV, and then I got the look...if you have a dog, you know the look. It's the "I've been sitting in this house all day and I need a break...I need a walk by God." Buddy is a master manipulator...he know's we both needed a good walk. It was too late to go for our canyon walk so I opted to take him around the "block".

Now where Gigi lives, there is about 100' of flat ground and it's in front of her house. From there it is like falling off a cliff. Each direction falls off into oblivion...one false step and you are glissading down a slope, tumbling and scratching at the ice looking to bury the point of your ice axe into the ice (if you've ever been on a glacier you know what all this stuff means). At any rate it is a steep hill in both directions. Buddy doesn't care...he's just looking for a good bush that needs a new dose of his marking fluid. It is a strange thing that he does...well it is not unusual to Buddy...every dog I've ever known has used this method of communication. It tells all the other dogs who will come by that he was there. It's a little more environmentally sound than those guys who use spray paint to make their mark and let people know that they were there and that they exist. All the other dogs who manipulated their caretakers into taking them on a walk will come by and smell the unique markings left by Buddy.

You know it got me thinking about the unique markings we leave behind...now I don't usually use Buddy's method (though I have been known to do it once in a while), but we do tend to leave a mark or two as we pass by. Usually it is in a memory or a act of kindness...and even an act of despicableness...but people leave their mark. Buddy is a master at leaving his mark...each stop he makes he leaves just a small amount, but it is enough to let dogs know he was there.

As I have been walking these last 50 some years, I recognize people have left their marks on me...hopefully I have made a few marks on them. Now I'm not a master at it like Buddy...but I'm learning to be...just giving a little bit of myself to each one I meet.