Working Hard

Oh, bliss to be back in my own bed again! After two days in the city I realize what a lucky dog I am to live on a moshav. We left home yesterday, took the train to Haifa, a bus to the Emma (where Bracha actually put Emma on the floor and she almost looked like she was playing with her toys!), then another bus back to the train station (I almost cried with disappointment when the escalator was broken and we had to take the stairs), and a train on to Tel Aviv (there the escalator worked!), another bus and then we went to school to get Rotem. I was so excited I pulled hard on the harness and ran through the school gate. And if that wasn't enough, we went out to eat at a restaurant and I had to walk around the street at night. It was scary: there was a big, ferocious looking dog standing in a doorway, and I didn't want to pass him. But Bracha understood that I was truly afraid and not just pulling one of my stubborn acts of standing in place. I think she was a little scared of the dog, too. So she told me to turn and go down into the street around some parked cars and then I quickly found my way onto the sidewalk again after we passed him by. Then the next day it was more busses, and more walking, and finally, the train back home. For the first time I wished people would just stop petting and admiring me so that I could get some sleep.

I am, truly, a country dog. The city smells (the nerve of the bus driver who said I did!), and every time I sit down at a bus stop I get some dirt or grit or chewing gum caught in my fur. There is no room to move, and I never get to really run. And it's hot and Bracha gives me water out of my little portable cloth bowl constantly because I'm so thirsty.

But there are some things I just don't understand. Why does everyone say they have a dog "just like me"? How can they if they don't have a guide dog?

But I liked the little girl at Rotem's school who told Bracha that she used to be afraid of dogs until she saw me and now she's not afraid any more. Bracha told her she was a brave girl for deciding not to be afraid anymore and let her pet me. I made sure to wag my tail really hard to show her that I'm not scary. But I wonder why the man on the bus quickly got up and went to sit somewhere else when Bracha sat down next to him and I sat down on the floor. If a little child in Rotem's school isn't scared, how is it that big people are scared? What a pity. That means he never pets a dog. And Bracha told me that lately she read that when people pet dogs they release something called a hoar moan that makes them feel good and be healthier, and we also release a hoar moan that makes us feel good, and that people who have dogs have fewer heart attacks.

Now, how can a heart attack someone? There are so many things I just don't understand…