Cor. Awe.
May 3rd 2008 11:28
Scratchy
The dog park is large and fenced. There are trees and benches and a drinking fountain and even an ornamental wall. There are doggy clean-up bag dispensers and special gates that children and Scratchy's dad have trouble operating.
In the early morning, there can be half a dozen dogs and their owners in the park. The people, not long out of bed, tend to know each other. They stand around in little groups watching the gambolling and sniffing, animal lovers united in their appreciation of the fact that their dogs can come here to play and socialise and do poo somewhere other than their back lawn.
The self-proclaimed speed queen of the park is Ruby, a German short-haired pointer who can run like the wind. Her owner has a long rubber contraption with a cup on the end. Place a tennis ball in the cup and whip the contraption and the ball is propelled long and far and fast. Ruby, says her owner, has rather too much energy and needs about 10 hours of this a day so that they can get some occasional peace at home.
Ruby is as fast as she is energetic. She is a head-back, tongue-out sprinter, a brown blur who was born to chase tennis balls.
The first time Scratchy saw the tennis ball whipped into the distance, and Ruby scream after it, he watched with interest. The second time, he gave Ruby a 30-metre head start, and then went after her.
Scratchy is a head-down, tongue-out-of-sight type of sprinter. I would say he runs like a greyhound, but none of us there, including his new owners, had seen him do this before. One doesn't think "fun" about this run - in the way that a bullet or an F18 Hornet suggest business rather than pleasure.
As he ran, the gathered dog owners went silent. As Scratchy passed Ruby, they let out a collective, "Cor." As he applied the brakes and politely waited for Ruby to arrive so she could claim her ball, the watchers burst into excited comment. Never seen anything like it. Cor. Rhymes with awe.
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