Children

It's hard for me to understand why children are so different. They are small and to them I must seem as big as a horse would seem to an adult. But they are as different as different kinds of dogs. Some are nice and some are not.

Yesterday we headed for town in a taxi with the nice driver who patted my head and called me by name all the way. And when we got to the clinic a man in a white coat gave me water and petted me a lot. Then we went to the pool. Boy, was Bracha angry when the life guard started up with the schpiel of my not being allowed in the pool.

"She's a guide dog..." and the usual polite explanations.

"I don't care what kind of dog she is. I didn't make up the rules."

Bracha grew impatient. I think she was hot and wanted to get into the water and resented being stopped and told she was not allowed to bring me into the pool again and again.

"No, you didn't make up the rules. The Knesset did. Guide dogs are allowed in the pool. Go ask the manager. I've been coming here for months with my dog. I'm tired of being told to leave. It's very unpleasant and I'd like to be able to come here and swim without being hassled."

He retreated and no more was said. Bracha swam and went to the office and complained to the manager, who explained that this life guard was new.

"It would be nice if you informed every new lifegard that my dog is allowed here. It's very upsetting to be told again and again that I'm not allowed to bring my dog in here whenever there is a new employee." We'll see if he bothers to do that.

And then, as promised, Bracha took me out through the snack bar to the beach. And what a racket. Kids started screaming in there as if there were a ferocious lion on the loose. "A dog! Look at that huge dog! Yikes!" And all I did was walk past them in my harness.

But the kids on the beach were different. They came up to me in the water and started petting me. They got so close to us swimming that Bracha had to tell them to keep back a bit because when I swim my claws get, well, a bit dangerous and wild in the water and I might accidently hurt someone or rip one of those inflatable toys kids like to use. But they liked me an awful lot. They made me feel good after those kids in the snack bar that screamed when I came near.

I guess the kids who like me learned from the adults who like me, and those who don't learned from the adults who are afraid of me and yell, too. And I also don't understand how Bracha sometimes makes the water at the beach into those big waves and sometimes it's smooth and flat. Maybe it has to do with her making water into ice cubes. Or anything else that I like.