What's up with my Ridgebacks?

Someone asked what was up, presumably with my Ridgeback girls and my thoughts about dogs.

The other night we felt an earthquake. The girls wanted to run out into the back yard to see what it was; so we did that. It’s hard to get my lazy girls up for anything other than a walk or food. Although if they hear a cat or a really strange noise, or feel something jolt the house; that will do it too.

In regard to the “second dog quest,” half the time I think I should make the best choice for a second dog; which might be an Amstaff. The rest of the time I think it wouldn’t be worth the aggravation to worry about the law, what people think, and other unknowns like what would our home-owner’s insurance company think if they knew I had an Amstaff. It would definitely be better to stick to Ridgebacks from the standpoint of aggravation reduction. Everyone in my neighborhood who pays any attention to me at all knows I have Ridgebacks, even if they don’t know what they are. They are used to them. Even the Home-Owner’s association salesman met Trooper; so no one should have any squawks about Ridgebacks.

And it is probably funny to think about “downsizing.” Night before last we were out some place dark and the girls had their heads into something in the bushes a bit too long. I suspected something nasty. I had both leashes in one hand, and was able to jerk them out of there without difficulty. . . But, on the other hand, the Amstaffs at Sierra Amstaffs are absolutely gorgeous! But, of course, Sage is absolutely gorgeous as well.

We still occasionally encounter strange things at night. Night before last we were walking on the dirt shoulder alongside our “main drag,” a two lane road called Ramona Blvd. A car would pass us about every minute. Way up ahead I could see someone coming toward us on the same side of the street we were on; so I shined my flashlight on the girls, letting whoever it was know that we were coming toward him. It turned out to be a very drunk man staggering toward us with a bottle of whisky in one hand. He had his hands stretched out at 90 degree angles to his body, presumably for balance. The hand with the bottle was as steady as the one without; so perhaps the bottle wasn’t full. He wasn’t so drunk that he didn’t see us, and got out on the asphalt to go around us. He was very near the center line. I don’t know what the girls thought of him but they jerked about on their leashes wanting to go check him out. I had to pay attention to them to keep them under control. At about the time I convinced them we were going on rather than going back to investigate that strange looking and, presumably, strange-smelling, creature, a car came in the same direction the man was going. I turned around to watch. The man never turned around but he did veer slightly toward the shoulder. It didn’t look like the car did much veering. Maybe he didn’t even see the man. At least he didn’t hit him.

We went on and probably walked about 90 minutes and the only other creature we saw of note was a small dog that was scurrying along on the Ramona shoulder toward Sanderson, which is a true main drag with cars moving at high speed. But there were people living in a couple of houses before then; so maybe he was just out for a stroll and returning to one of them. He was moving fast and looked like he knew where he was going. Hopefully, he did.

Tonight as we were heading out for our walk a lady was pulling out of her drive-way several houses from mine. She asked how old my dogs were. I told her Ginger was 6 and Sage 4. She said the reason she asked was that she had lived in the neighborhood for 7 years and remembered my Ridgeback and thought it must be getting pretty old by now. “Ah no. That would have been Trooper. I lost him several years ago when he was about 12.”

“Was he like them?”

“Yes he was. They are Rhodesian Ridgebacks. Ginger here looks quite a lot like Trooper did.”

“Nice looking dogs.”

“Thanks.”

“Heading out on your nightly walk.”

“Yeah. Got to go late after it’s cooled off.”

“Have fun.”

“Thanks.”

And that is about all I’ve been up to.