National Dog Week

 

The last full week in September is National Dog Week in the United States. I'm definitely a lifelong fan of dogs. Sled dogs, Huskies and Malamutes, are my favorite breeds because they are the closest to their wolf origins. I checked and found 20 posts have been made here with the label "dogs" including one from last year on March 24th when I said goodbye to "the best dog ever." Our new boy is quite the character, now six years old, but going on six months in his activity level. He came to us last year with quite a story already. He had lost his original person when the man died. I can understand why this dog proved too much for the man's widow. In fairness to our present hyperactive husky, I try to remember any problems we had with his predecessor.

Twenty posts about dogs! I was all set to give yet another story here. The only problem is I wanted something originating in Native American storytelling about the origins of dogs and their longtime friendship with people. I even found one I thought was pretty obscure, "Why the Dog Hangs Out His Tongue." DRAT! June 6, 2020 as the Covid "Shelter in Place" was coming to an end I posted that very story I planned for today.

I encourage you to go to that search label of "dogs" for lots of stories including June 6, 2020 which ends with the following picture and I repeat its concluding paragraph.

Illustration by R. Emmett Owen

 

The story, "Why the Dog Hangs Out His Tongue" ends with

When our dog is on the trail with me I sometimes wonder about him "not being able to run as fast" while alternating between trying to control him or just keep up. I also remind my husband when our dog is barking (especially if I can tell coyotes are nearby) he's just doing his job. Unfortunately for a pair of possums, that includes protecting us from them. Hmmm maybe I should hunt up some possum stories.

A storytelling conference where I once presented, the Northeast Storytelling's annual conference, Sharing the-Fire, had a wonderful session to let people unwind with Telling Pet Stories. Anybody with a pet, even if it's not a dog, has stories. I'm always happy to encourage storytelling, so if you have or had a pet, I hope you will start or continue telling stories about them. That's all I'm going to tell for now -- I need to hurry away because we've a dog leaping at our back door wanting inside!