A Magic Dog?

What an amazing group of people we met at the bus stop in Haifa. First we met two young boys, one of whom said he was afraid of me. Bracha told him not to worry, that I would be next to her all the time and that I was not aggressive. Then a man came along and said he had worked with a search dog in the army and had been sent to Haiti to help find and rescue people. After he left another man came along and said that he had a guide dog puppy from Beit Oved at home. Bracha told them they could look forward to meeting the person who would receive their dog if she passed the training and became a guide dog. That made him happy. I guess he will be sad when he has to give the dog back to Beit Oved. And he was the only person who ever said, "I have a dog just like that at home," and was really telling the truth! The rest of them only wish they had a dog like me...

When we got to the train station we met a mother and several young children on the train platform. At first they were afraid of me and one of them shouted, "Look at that HUGE dog!" Am I huge??? Bracha told them that I was a magic dog that could do all sorts of things. At first I was a bit anxious - maybe she was going to ask me to do something that I don't know how to do like fly or disappear. But I soon realized that she was only referring to the things I really know how to do. To some people it is like magic. I really was not bothered when the children wanted to pet me. But the stroking and pleasantness soon got to be tiresome. Bracha told them to pet my back and shoulders. She knows that I don't like children stretching their hands out into my face and she knows I can't stand people fiddling around with my tail. But despite that, they started poking in places that I didn't like, so I quickly got up and shook myself. Their mother intervened and told them I had had enough. They wanted to pet me more, and Bracha said no.

Finally we got on the train, and I lay down in my favorite spot on the rug. And oh my, there they were again, and thank goodness Bracha told them firmly that now I needed to rest and that they had to leave me alone.

When we got to Nahariya we started walking...yes! To the beach! Even when Bracha saw that I was jumping around the hot pavement and stopped to put my shoes on, I was eager to keep going and get there. We had a wonderful time and I had to be told to come lay down and rest. Otherwise I think I would have stayed in the water until I was too tired to walk back to the bus. I love leaping over the waves when the water comes and rushes over my head. I could do it all day. It's even worth having to stand under the shower afterwards and get all the salt and sand washed off. I guess sometimes you have to put up with something you don't like in order to enjoy something that you love.