Overheard at... Starbucks

The incessant barking of a dog.

With the weather finally turning nice here in Portland (we always have to wait till after the 4th of July for it to do so:>) we were finally able to sit outside and enjoy our iced lattes. My daughter was playing with her friends while the mom and I caught up about some important news.
 
And yet… it was almost impossible to hear over, and certainly no way to ignore, the loud barking of the anxious dog whose owner had left him to go in and get his own drink. My pet mommy heart-strings were pulled… particularly as it made me wonder if that is what our own dog, Summer, had been like on our recent trip to Tahoe.

It is true…. The older she gets the grumpier and more demanding she becomes. If she wants to sit, cuddled up in her spot next to me, I better not even consider having the computer there. And heaven forbid you try to move
  her if she is asleep and comfortable. When we have friends over she sits, staring pathetically at them when they have unknowingly taken her favorite spot on the couch, until they move. And dinner time happens on her schedule not ours. She has become a type A dog.

She’s never been a particularly gracious dog. I know some dogs would do anything for their master; but not Summer. Don’t get me wrong, it is clear she loves us (me especially) but she has a certain level of expectation
that she wants met… not unlike a cat – albeit a very nice one.

Still, until recently she has been complacent enough to remain in her pen when we leave and put her there. Tahoe, however was different. Her anxiety at being left gave her the courage to jump out…. Something she has never
done before. Anxiety is funny that way… sometimes it can provide the inspiration we need to attempt something we’ve never dreamed of. It is both a limiter as well as a motivator. 

It didn’t take long for the owner to come out and yell at the dog to be quiet… which may not have been the attention he was looking for but at least reassured him he hadn’t been left for good. 
 
I’d love to write more about the challenge of negative attention and kids, but it will have to wait. Summer is pushing the computer off my lap and wants her cuddle spot.