When we arrived in our new apartment, a local dog, we
affectionately named Chester, loved to bark for hours at a time during the
night. When we asked our cute little
Antonio, the maintenance man about it, he just shrugged his shoulders. No one else seemed bothered by it. We concluded that they are either deaf, or
have learned to tune out the endless barking (along with the endless drone of
car alarms, roosters, more dogs, loud music, dominoes and singing). We tried earplugs, shutting the windows,
keeping the fan going all night…all to no avail. We called out the window , “Chester, shut
up!” Or “Callate!” He ignored us. Then I tried a new approach. I opened the window, called out in a soft but
firm voice, “Chester…pare!” (That means
STOP) That seemed to work for a while. Some nights he would shut right up and
others he would just keep on howling at the moon or whatever was out
there. He’s a large dog with a very low
penetrating bass voice who might fit nicely into my Dominican choir.
Over the ensuing months, I have tried talking to him before we
go to bed and just laying it out, “Chester, there’s no need to bark
tonight. Please just be calm and let us
sleep.” That has worked many
nights. Plus our granddaughter Katie
said, “Why don’t you just pray.” We have
been doing that regularly. And it’s been
helping a lot! For the last few weeks,
I’ve wanted to blog about how well Chester is doing and as soon as I say that,
he has a terrible night and so do we. Lately,
if he starts in before we go to bed, I’ve been importuning (out the window), “Chester,
hey, that’s not necessary tonight.” Or,
“Hey Chester, what’s up, buddy?” Or,
“Now, Chester. Those people sitting
around at the ball park across the street are going to be noisy tonight,
they’ll be laughing and singing out of tune, drunk as skunks but let’s just
ignore them… K?” He usually looks up at
my window, barks twice and stops.” It’s been
great!
My friend Dawn has a lovable dog (even for me...and y’all
know how I feel about dogs in general) named Marley. Dawn’s advice was “Just go down there and
give him a bone.” I thought about trying
to make friends with him during the day but then I figured if he saw me and
heard me and put two and two together, he would realize that this voice with
quiet authority coming down from “above” just belonged to a little old grandma
and he’d probably lose all respect for my authority and bite me!
Also, we can almost set our clocks by his early morning
barks at the paper boy on his moto.
That’s at 5:00 AM and then normally about 5:30 there are walkers going
down the street and he likes to bark at them.
I haven’t bothered him about this because I figure if he stays quiet
until 5…we’re good. And besides, he
needs to bark! Otherwise he’ll explode!
Well, 4 days ago, we didn’t hear him in the morning. Very unusual.
There’s another dog in the neighborhood who likes to chat with Chester
in the mornings and he was barking up a storm but no answer from Chester. Then that night, nothing. Nor the next night, nor the next. Now I’m starting to worry. “Did he die?
(I admit I have wished him dead a few times…and I’ve had evil thoughts
about stun guns and such…but) Is he
sick? Is he in the hospital? Did he move away to terrorize another
unsuspecting neighborhood? I really
sincerely hoped that no one ran over him because he often chases cars,
too. Anyway, still no sign of Chester. Bill thought he heard 2 barks
from him yesterday, but I think it was another dog…more a baritone than
Chester. I know I should be relieved,
but I’m feeling a tad guilty. And I sort
of miss our little visits before bed. I
thought maybe he was really listening to me.
He was getting to be rather obedient.
I was starting to feel powerful. And
that, my friends, is a heady thing for any woman to feel. J
And now for the rest of the story. He’s back!
He greeted us and the paper boy early this morning. It was too good to be true and I guess my guilt "was
in vain for nothing!" Must have been
vacationing at the beach with the family…you know…
frolicking in the ocean...
...or catching some rays at the pool
...or trying out that new surf board.
I guess dogs are people, too!
At any rate, he’s back with a vengeance (no,
he didn’t go to obedience school or even some sensitivity-training-camp-for-dogs to learn how to be more courteous. No, it’s back to square one.
Or maybe square two. Last night
he ignored me at midnght but at the 2 am barkfest, when I went to the window and quietly but very firmly said, “Chester…..PARE!” he stopped immediately Ahh….Pavlov called it!
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