dog-happy
If there are two words which do not go together, they are ‘dog’ and ‘tired’. ‘Dog-loyal’ would make more sense. Or ‘dog-smelly’, ‘dog-licky’, ‘dog-hungry’ or ‘dog-scratchy’. You catch my drift. Why ‘dog-tired’? It’s such a badly thought out expression.
I mean, I’ve never met a dog who I could justify describing that way. Dogs must feel royally done over. We humans have picked the most incongruous noun possible for our canine friends – tired (?!) – and stubbornly gone on our merry way using it alongside ‘dog’, and now it is preserved for eternity in the Oxford English Dictionary as an age-old expression.
Let’s face the facts. You could have walked your four legged friend over hill and dale, covered the distance from Penzance to John O’Groats and back, and whilst you are unable to muster the energy to move your exhausted heap of limbs from the sofa, you still daren’t mention the W-A-L-K word as you know the ears would prick up and the tail would wag and off Boris would bound as if his paws haven’t even touched the ground. (By the way, don’t you think Boris would be a brilliant name for a dog? Nearly as good as Ron for a cat). In the very moment when you are contemplating the very real need for a nice cup of tea and a hobnob biscuit before you can do another thing, Boris is already energetically sniffing around the kitchen floor in the hope that his nose will find a hitherto missed scrap from yesterday’s dinner. Dogs are never tired! This weekend has me convinced that we should change the expression from this point forth, to ‘dog-happy’.
You see, it has been a thoroughly gorgeous and sunshiney so every single person I have encountered has been in a great mood. Of course, it’s only to be expected. It is only March and the unexpected gift from the weather in behaving as if it’s July has not gone unnoticed. However, I have to say that it is the dogs of England who have been loving it the most. There have been dozens of them skipping, jumping and floppily smiling as only they can, in every green grassed corner of the land. I swear all doggy minds have been super-turbo-boosted by their owner’s sun-soaked euphoria. They love the sunshine, but they love that we love the sunshine, more.
Dogs are feed off our emotions. Fact. But they are best at being happy. And they are rubbish at being tired. Of all the dogs I have encountered this week, this one was my favourite (case in point). My mum and I spotted him as we strode out to Filey Brigg. She had unashamedly proposed the jaunt in a fairly ill disguised attempt to cheer me up and get me out of the house. Make sure you have your sound on, as this video’s joys are two fold. 1. Dog loving the sea surf 2. Mum telling a story about a playful dutch Sea Lion.
By the way, if you’ve never been to Filey on the Yorkshire coast (just down from Scarborough) then you should go. My family holidayed there every single summer until I was 10 years old. Sandy crab sandwiches, red flip flops designed to give you blisters, rock pools to be explored on the brigg, vinegary cockles served with plastic two prong forks from the wooden shacks at the end of the pier, colourful donkey rides on the beach and the big yellow and red turreted bouncy castle made big impressions on my childhood psyche. Very British. Very brilliant.