Suki sunning herself on the lawn at Ginnosar
We spent the weekend at a place where there was more water than I have ever seen before. There were boats on it and waves, and I couldn’t figure out why people kept complaining that it was smaller than it should be: it looked like an awful lot of water to me…I liked walking along the paths and up and down the little bridge that went over the river. And those lovely luscious green lawns where I spent hours lying and sleeping in the sun were lovely. Only problem was that every time I fell asleep, someone would start petting me and fussing over how pretty I am and wake me up again. And then the next morning there were people holding all kinds of strange things on their laps making that music again. I went to sleep next to Bracha’s chair, but suddenly Bracha and everyone else started stamping their feet, and I wondered what was wrong.. Bracha only stamps her foot when I make a mistake and bump her into something in the street, or when I forget to stop at a curb. Then she stamps her foot three times and shouts “Zehirut!” (Be careful!) at me, but Bracha didn’t seem to be angry at all: Actually she seemed quite pleased and happy. So I gave up wondering what all the foot-stamping was about and went back to sleep again. All those jigs and reels sound the same to me after a while…but if Bracha’s happy, well, so am I.
Suki is now sleeping, much like me, exhausted after a fun weekend at Jacob’s Ladder Folk Festival. Folk festivals are not for sleeping – neither for participants nor for their guide dogs. Suki was admired by all, and it seemed that every time she lay down to sleep someone would want to stroke her and she would stir a bit as if to say, “What, again?” and then drift back to sleep again with music playing in the room at full volume.
What to do with Suki when I am on stage? There was hardly room for her on the edge of the stage amidst the wires and microphones, but that problem was soon solved: Suki curled herself into a neat little ball at the feet of the stairs leading up to the stage, so I clipped her leash to the steps and just left her there, where, to my great chagrin, she slept through a set of polkas and a rousing version of Cunla and the full jig afterwards. She all but sighed afterwards when I woke her up and slipped her harness on to go back to the room. She also slept through most of the Irish session the next morning – apparently trying to catch up on lost sleep from the evening before. She did enjoy the attention and laying out on the grass in the sun.
Next summer when I can let Suki off leash in an open area she will have a wonderful time on the beach. She is definitely the festival dog.
No comments:
Post a Comment