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| Who's that little doggie in the parking lot? |
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| Little Bluebell with the big personality. |
I first met Bluebell walking to the library. I noticed a dog sitting in a window seat often, in a house behind the local funeral home. One day I saw a little white bulldog sitting outside, looking up at another dog sitting in the window seat of the house, in a way that seemed like teasing. I called out "Hey! What are you doing?" and then the white dog started racing across the parking lot in spurts, stopping then starting, with me giggling nervously but also enjoying the show. Then a man with a handlebar mustache came out, shouting and calling to the dog, which made it take off in a tear towards me, jumping right over a small hedge easily, surprising for a doggie with such short legs. I shouted out "Is he friendly?" He said "She's a girl! Very!" I noticed she had a pink dog collar as she tried to bite into my shoe, snuffling around my ankles. When he came closer, she jumped back over the hedge, circled around his legs a few times while he chased her, trying to bit his feet, too.
It was really funny.
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| Belly rubs! |
After that, I kept an eye out for her, and one afternoon I noticed the owner sitting outside on a lawn chair, so I went over to say "hello". He told me her name was Bluebell, an English Bulldog, one of two dogs he had. I noticed her big personality right away and told him so. There was also what I thought was an Irish Setter, a long haired
Retriever named Highway, lingering near us with a tennis ball in his mouth, trying to engage us in a game of "keep away". When I asked him about his name, he said it
came from his favorite Clint Eastwood movie, Heartbreak Ridge, and he asked me if I'd seen it. I couldn't remember if I had or not. He said Bluebell was a lot nicer than his first bulldog, an irascible, grumpy little fellow, but his son loved the breed so much that they got a second one when he died. She was his opposite; gregarious, friendly, endlessly charming, always ready for playtime, attention, and affection. She let herself out of the house often, and she also liked to sunbathe in the parking lot on her leash.
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| Aww. Puppy face. "Hi Bluebell!" |
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| Haha! Shake it off, Bluebell! |
He said it was a shame bulldogs didn't live very long because of the aggressive inbreeding used to create their distinctive looks.
I understood. My Giant Mal didn't live long, the same as the other snow dogs I had, and that it was harder for us humans than it was for them, because we missed them so much after they were gone. I realized after I said goodbye to my new friend and walked away that I was probably one of the few people in town (if any) to say those consoling words to the town's funeral director, a man who has said them countless times to people in their times of comfort and need. I'm sure the irony wasn't lost on him, either.
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| Precious little doggie with sad face :( |
