Patty, the youngest of my three nieces, and Teddy, her husband, have a four-and-a-half-year-old black Lab named Bruce. Bruce might just be the nicest dog you’ll ever meet: mellow, friendly, good-natured, well-trained — and happy to do pretty much whatever. Beagle Man followers first met Bruce back in 2012, during LA/XC-2, when Ricky the Beagle and I visited Patty and Teddy in Palo Alto, where they were living at the time. Ricky also wrote about Bruce, fondly, in his “My Pals” feature.
Patty, Teddy, and Bruce came out to visit us at the beach two weeks ago, and Kemba and Bruce became, quite simply, best friends. Attached at the hip. And since Patty and Teddy dote on Bruce the same way I dote on Kemba, our preoccupation with our dogs, and our dog-care systems, meshed perfectly. Usually Teddy and I took both dogs down to the beach for fetch and digging. Sometimes it was just me with the two dogs, sometimes just Teddy. Occasionally Patty and Carol joined in. All in all, a seamlessly blended group of dogs and dog people.
Patty, it should be noted, is something of a dog whisperer. Not in any sophisticated or mystical way; she just has a quiet, firm way that dogs respond to. In that one weekend, she got Kemba to break two of his “bad” habits: reaching up on counters, and jumping up on people. I’d had no success with Kemba in either area.
In almost all respects, my niece’s approach to dogs, and mine, are the same. Except for one. She has a habit — dare I call it a fetish? — of dressing dogs up in costumes. She has a whole wardrobe of these get-ups. It’s always made me slightly uncomfortable to see dogs in costumes — sort of clown-like
and demeaning. I’ve questioned Patty on this, since I don’t doubt for a minute that she loves dogs as much as anyone, and probably a lot more than most people do. She says she does it because it makes her laugh — really, really hard.
Two nights ago Carol and I were driving out to Montauk, by way of Manhattan, where we had a dinner-and-theatre date. We couldn’t leave Kemba in the car that long, of course, so we arranged to drop him off with Bruce for a play date. You should have seen the two dogs — jumping and dancing and sniffing and tussling — when Teddy and Bruce met my car outside their apartment. I knew Kemba would have an amazing time that night.
What I didn’t know is that he’d be starting his modeling career.
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The e-mail subject line had me nervous. I thought Kemba might have tried to become a Caitlyn! 🙂
Patty sounds like my Jayne. They both have a way of speaking and acting that dogs really understand. Kemba is a great Lion King! And I thought we were a bit over the top when we put fancy bow ties on our dog for the Christmas photos.