Saturday, July 11, 2009

Elsa and her amazing tricks!

She hates the garbage collector. She dislikes the Dhobi. She strikes terror in the hearts of the local maintenance staff (the lawn mowers, the sanitation workers etc). She intimidates the delivery people. Yet, she is the most wonderful dog I have met.

She does no tricks. She stares at me when I try and teach her to roll over. She refuses to fetch the ball. She may give you a paw, but the look that accompanies it may dissuade you from doing it again. Yet, she will run in if we explain that the sanitation worker are there just to check on the sewers. Of course, she keeps a suspicious eye on them from a vantage point. When she is back from a walk, she will of her own volition, clean her feet. Come bed time and she will accompany you to ensure that the gates are locked. The children sometimes need to be reminded to use the toilet before getting into bed, but she will use the garden,as soon as the last call sounds. What is more, she will make sure we know it, so we do not bug her about it.

She instinctively seems to know who is family and how to behave with visiting members. Not for her, instant friendships. Acceptance comes at her own terms and just because you think that you are good with dogs, there are no guarantees. If you give her a wide berth though, she is willing to ignore you, only because she knows you are a friend of the family. Strangers will never be ignored and while she may not bite their head off, she convinces them that they should not risk it.

We do not know anything about her breed, but enjoy her uniqueness and even revel in it. And as for chasing balls and fetching our slippers, I am waiting for my children to master those tricks on command, before I turn my attention to Elsa. She shares my sentiments on that!

No comments:

Post a Comment