Saw a cute cartoon the other day. A man sitting at a bar is wearing a sign that reads, Please Treat Me Like a Dog. Another man is explaining to the bar-tender, He just wants someone to take him home, feed him and let him sleep all day.
We’re back in Mexico, at the Rocky Point condo.
Actually, Bao isn’t crazy about the beach. I think as far as he’s concerned, the Sea of Cortez is just a gigantic water-dish, inexplicably surrounded by kitty litter. And it moves. That’s what worries him. The water in your water-dish isn’t supposed to move, but this water does. So he sits uneasily on the sand and keeps his eye on it, ready to run if it looks as if it’s coming to get him.
He likes the pool area, though. He likes lying on the warm tiles in the sun, or if it gets too hot, underneath the deck-chair. And he likes interacting with people, especially children. They come up and ask if they can pet him and tell him how beautiful he is.
When I swim, he trots up and down along the edge of the pool following me. And he’s always very relieved when I get out of the water and sit down again. I suspect he thinks that the ocean might decide to come and get me, too.
His very favourite Rocky Point thing – and this is the biggest treat of all – is going out into the asphalt wasteland of the parking lot and checking out the little grassy islands where all the visiting dogs have peed. This is the high point of each morning and evening walk. Today we actually saw another little male dog, and Bao followed him doggedly (couldn’t resist that!) from island to island across the whole lot, taking careful aim and diligently peeing on every palm tree just exactly where the other dog just peed. What a super walk! It was almost as much fun as finding a dead lizard on the nature strip and rolling in it.
If you’re a dog, that is.
Personally, I prefer the beach.