The Grover Factor

One of the perks we get from staying home to work is that we can take our daily walk in the morning. Before the pandemic we had to wait until we got home in the afternoon. As a result, we have met more nice dogs and people than we new even existed in our neighborhood. The weird things is that all of them say that they have seen us walking together for years even though we have no clue who they are. Doc calls it the Grover factor.

Apparently they have been spying us through their windows. Not in a creepy way, but in a curious way. The humans remark that they are impressed that they see us walking in all kinds of weather, day after day. Then the next thing they always ask is, ” What kind of dog is that?” Doc is use to this question by now and lets them go on for awhile as they guess. “Is he a Wolfhound, Giant Schnauzer…..?” Doc always waits patiently until they finish and then she says, ” He is part Standard Poodle and part Labrador Retriever.” Then she waits again until they incredulously say “Noooooo Really?”  ” But he’s so big and his beard and hair is so long, he’s so different looking, such a handsome dog.” And with that Doc thanks them profusely for the compliment and we’re on our merry way.

It is my observation that humans feel the need to place labels on everything. I guess it gives you a way to distinguish things and have a sense of order. At times this can be beneficial, but be careful, labels can have a downside as well.  Labels can also strip away the special qualities that make us unique by putting us all in one box and then assigning negative or positive terms based on that. As for dogs, we aren’t in to that, we just want to sniff butts and play with each other.  Our lives are so much more simple as a result.

I like to believe that we are all unique in our own way and that we should celebrate what makes us different. Life is so much more interesting that way.