Metro to Mountain Journal

There is a small dog in our neighborhood who lives next to a sidewalk. We have sidewalks all through the neighborhood, but this is a special sidewalk, it is the secret sidewalk. The sidewalk breaks a very long block as a cut through. A chain link fence surrounds the small dog's yard.

Our old dog Jake, was older than this pup, but from the start, Jake did not like him. The small dog would run up and down the fence line as fast as possible, barking. If the dog wanted to bark at Jake, then Jake wanted nothing to do with the small dog. In fact, Jake walked as far away from the yard as possible. Through the years, Jake never grew to like the dog and neither did any other dogs that we saw passing the yard. The small dog was noisy and sort of a bully.

We did not know the dog's name, but a neighborhood tot, called him 'Barky Dog' and that was good enough for us. We modified the name to Barker, but then this fall we learned that his name was really Snickers.

During the summer while we were out of town on a trip, Snickers escaped his yard and was hit by a motor vehicle. No doubt, Snickers was chasing the car, barking. He lost one of his hind legs in the incident, but the next time we saw him, he was running up and down the fence line just as fast as when he had four legs. The incident also did nothing to curtail his barking. While he ran, he yapped even louder at anyone who would listen.

Then along came August. When our Golden Retriever pup met Snickers for the first time, Snickers ran his fastest and barked his loudest. We surely thought that our seven week old pup would try to hide from the bully, Snickers. But, that's not what happened. Instead, August tried to run with Snickers. His barking made our puppy want to play even more.

From that moment on, each and every time we passed Snickers' house, August would pull to arrive at the fence as soon as possible. If Barker was not in the yard - August would be disappointed, but if Snickers was in the yard, August would run and play with the barking dog.

It has been fun watching the August and Snickers encounters. Snickers would always do his best to impress August, but August just didn't seem to care. If Snickers wanted to run, August would run with him. If Snickers wanted to bark, August would listen and try to lick him through the fence. Then, Snickers would tire and go to the porch to rest. August would stay forever, but we woud make him continue his walk and he would leave Snickers, Augie's fence friend, until next time.

Whatever Snickers used to say (barkingly) to scare dogs away, it has never worked on August. Perhaps, August just didn't understand dog speak well enough to know exactly what Snickers was saying. To August all of the barking and running meant the obvious - If you run and bark, I'll run and play with you. Go faster! Bark louder! It's all fun.

Happy Snickers trails