{"id":32718,"date":"2025-03-28T05:00:38","date_gmt":"2025-03-28T09:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/?p=32718"},"modified":"2025-03-28T16:01:29","modified_gmt":"2025-03-28T20:01:29","slug":"theyre-good-company","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/28\/theyre-good-company\/","title":{"rendered":"They\u2019re Good Company"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today was a tough day.\u00a0 Very sad things going on for some friends of mine.\u00a0 But, let\u2019s see what we can talk about that\u2019s not too sad.<\/p>\n

Penny is our basset hound.\u00a0 She\u2019s one and a half years old so Camera Girl considers her a \u201cpuppy.\u201d\u00a0 Really, a psycho is what she is.\u00a0 She attacks our German shorthaired pointer relentlessly.\u00a0 I attribute most of this insanity to Camera Girl\u2019s criminally lax dog training.\u00a0 But I don\u2019t rule out congenital brain abnormality as part of the answer.\u00a0 Anyway, this dog dotes on me.\u00a0 If she had her way, I\u2019d spend twenty-three hours a day scratching her enormous ears and the voluminous folds of skin on her throat.\u00a0 Suffice it to say she follows me around the house hoping for an ear rub.<\/p>\n

But today I had to get into a suit.\u00a0 White shirt, tie, suit jacket and pants, black leather shoes.\u00a0 The whole thing.\u00a0 I come down the stairs and she takes one look at me and goes berserk; barking and growling at me.\u00a0 She doesn\u2019t recognize me!\u00a0 She\u2019s dancing back and forth looking like she either wants to bite me or run away.\u00a0 I\u2019m yelling at her at the top of my lungs trying to get her to recognize my voice and calm down.\u00a0 I\u2019m also worried she\u2019ll shake her jowls and splatter my suit with basset drool.\u00a0 Finally, she runs into the living room while I go out through the kitchen door.<\/p>\n

I came home four hours later and almost the same thing happens.\u00a0 She\u2019s barking and howling and carrying on.\u00a0 So, I go upstairs and get changed and come down in my regular clothes and she stops and looks at me and acts confused.\u00a0 She won\u2019t come near me but she isn\u2019t barking.\u00a0 Slowly she shuffles closer, sniffing at my feet and looking hesitant.\u00a0 Then finally she snaps out of it and accepts that it\u2019s me.<\/p>\n

Bassett hounds are supposed to be second only to blood hounds in their ability to recognize scents.\u00a0 So, what the hell is wrong with this dog?\u00a0 Now, sure I wear pretty much the same shirts, pants, shoes and socks every day.\u00a0 But if I put on another suit of clothes, I\u2019m unrecognizable?<\/p>\n

What goes on in the tiny brain of this dog?\u00a0 Apparently, I\u2019ve become a very stable pattern in her mind and any small change to the details of my sensory image, whether scent, sight or sound immediately convinces her that it\u2019s not really me.\u00a0 Maybe she\u2019s been watching one of the various versions of that classic of cold war paranoia, \u201cInvasion of the Body Snatchers.\u201d\u00a0 Apparently today I became one of the pod people walking the streets, disguised as her favorite ear scratcher.<\/p>\n

Well, all is forgiven again.\u00a0 I spent the requisite five minutes scratching her gigantic heavy ears and telling he she isn\u2019t a psychopath.\u00a0 It\u2019s all lies of course but we somehow have to get through the day as a family.\u00a0 So, I\u2019ll make believe she\u2019s a good dog.<\/p>\n

But I will say she helped me get out of the funk I was in.\u00a0 Dogs are useful, even crazy ones.\u00a0 They take your mind off of big problems at least for a few minutes and from what I\u2019ve heard petting them even lowers your blood pressure.\u00a0 Well, all the yelling I did probably had the opposite effect but either way she was good company.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Update<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ed Brault In reply to photog.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m the same way. My \u201cWedding and Funeral\u201d Suit and my \u201cMilitary Funerals\u201d Class-A uniform hang in a zip-storage bag in the back of the closet.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As for the Basset, well, it must vary by the dog. I visited my folks after a tour overseas, and their St. Bernard, who hadn\u2019t seen me in nearly four years, shot straight to my car, expecting me to take her to the beach, just like my last visit.<\/strong>\"Brault0000001A\"<\/a><\/p>\n

reply by photog<\/em><\/p>\n

Yes, i think you’re right. It varies by the dog and this particular canine is a little high strung. Or just plain crazy, depending on your literary style.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today was a tough day.\u00a0 Very sad things going on for some friends of mine.\u00a0 But, let\u2019s see what we can talk about that\u2019s not<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,3366,818,1263],"tags":[3354,835],"class_list":["post-32718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","category-life-in-dunwich","category-ocf","category-stuff-that-personally-interests-me-miscellaneous","tag-basset-hound","tag-dogs"],"yoast_head":"\nThey\u2019re Good Company - Orion's Cold Fire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/28\/theyre-good-company\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"They\u2019re Good Company - 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