10.5.05

Dog People

Dog people are an interesting breed. Ouch.. sorry for the bad pun, but they are. It seems that if you get a dog you're instantly part of their little club. That all dog owners are instantly friends. The guy could be a serial killer, but if he's got a dog you get a exchange like this:

owner 1 to dog 2: "Hello there, you're a friendly one, aren't you?
owner 1 to owner 2: "What his name?"
owner 2 to owner 1: "This is Skippy, and yours?
owner 1 to owner 2: "mine's Tommy Lee"
owner 2 to owner 1: "..ah, like the drummer from Motley Crew"
owner 1 to owner 2: <laughing> "my name is Jen by the way..."
etc....

Seriously, if you want dates, it looks like getting a dog is the way to do it.

I've never been a big fan of owning pets. Sure I've loved pets that I had as a kid and some of my best friends have plently of cute ones that I want to steal from time to time (Louie, I'm coming for you). But I'm afraid of the amount of time and energy they cost to maintain. It's like having a nice yard; You've got to weigh the pleasure you get from it against the amount of time/money it costs to do yard work. Of course, some people like yard work, so maybe it's the same with pets. For me, I'm suspiscous of anything that requires regular mantanance: cars, yards, pets, computers. I've got to really want what they're going to give me.

It's like when people add up how much of their life they've spent sleeping and come up with some astronomical number of hours or days or years. I don't want to be 80 and adding up the amount of time I spend picking up dog poop. <grin> But wait, this isn't about me, it's about dog people...

Most of what I'm saying probably applies more to city dog people than country, if only because owning a dog in the city requires walking the dog along the same streets and in the same parks as other dog owners, thus prompting the above dialog about Tommy Lee.

My uncle has offered me the use of his super cute dog for a few days, and he suggested that I have a film crew with me and turn it into an independent film for the festivals. The funny thing is that it's not a terrible idea, in fact I think it's better than most of the crap that gets made nowadays.

Anyway, it's a funny thing to watch as a third party. But no matter how nice the people involved are to me, I always get this feeling that there is a secret handshake or at least a slight condecending tone because I don't have a 'best friend' of my own beside me.