Having my Parent’s Scottish Terrier, Thurber, visiting was a totally eye opening experience in terms of how much people love small Dogs. Bae, my beautiful Border Collie, weighs about 38 lbs. and I would guess that about 1 out of 10 people wants to meet her and about 4 out of 10 people smile at her. People in cars love her because I pull her 3 feet back from the road(using voice command) and the drivers almost always smile at her.
Walking with a little dog…..a whole different experience. I would guess that about 8 out of the 10 people I ran into wanted to *touch the little dog*. One woman in a car actually asked me to pick Thurber up and hold him next to her car window so she could touch him. A neighbor who I haven’t spoken with in 6 months came flying over and spent 15 minutes telling me that this is the exact dog she wants but her husband won’t let her have one…
Bae may as well have been wearing the ‘invisibility cloak’ from Harry Potter for all the attention she got. When I took them both to a pet supply store the clerk actually walked toward us, looking at Thurber, saying *Now this one I like*. I mention that because people who sell stuff to dog owners should never pick a favorite. But apparently the power of the little dog wins over business sense.
All the attention Thurb got didn’t bother me and I didn’t need for anyone to notice the medium sized black and white Dog to the left of the beautiful little black Dog I just found it fascinating that the reaction of the public was so different to two creatures that are of the same species. I guess that on first seeing a Dog people react based on looks and it’s now obvious to me that most people find little Dogs to be the cutest and most approachable.
The whole time Thurber was with me I sort of felt like I had a celebrity visiting and actually I loved that for Thurber. He doesn’t have very much longer to live so the fact that so many people got to appreciate who he is was nice for me to see. When I was talking with Thurber’s fans I made sure to give people a little bit of information about who he really is so that he became more than just the *little Dog*. And Bae didn’t mind any of this because I kept throwing the Frisbee for her so her world remained nearly perfect throughout the entire visit. Actually, the fact that so many people stopped us meant that I threw it for her more so she made out the best in the deal.
