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12 down, 2 to go...
The 11th season of the Carolina Renaissance Festival is almost over, and I am TIRED. I know the dogs are tired as well, but I somehow feel like I've been running a marathon for the past month!
This past weekend was not one of our better ones. I tried to think of Joanne's words the weekend before...that we were so lucky, really, to be able to hang out there for free, smell the delicious cinnamon almonds all day, and hear fun music from the stage just down from our tent. We've made wonderful friends there who love our dogs...and us, we think... But I was just tired, Profile was tired, and it was just a long weekend. And THEN the "incident" happened...
There is a child in the mayor's court, an orphan, who has been known to be unable to appropriately interact with our dogs in the past. Joanne had to tell him to stop staring JD in the eye repeatedly, then finally succeeded in stopping him by saying that JD would bite him if he didn't stop. That was last year...he was younger... but apparently a year of growth has not contributed to his savvy with dogs.
I had already had to chase children's fingers out of Profile's eyes several times and stop a little boy in a stroller from kicking Profile's legs (his father, attached to the other end, didn't seem to find it important to stop him) repeatedly. Profile had been poked, prodded, stared at, scratched probably too hard and in the wrong places...typical day at the fair for a greyhound, really...and I was trying my best to keep on top of things and protect my lovey boy.
I should have tried harder.
The orphan positioned himself behind Profile and was petting him, pulling his ears, saying his name over and over, and then lying on top of him. Several of us told him to stop. He didn't, and so Profile told the boy himself.
With a loud bark, the pulling back of lips/showing of teeth, a growl, and a slap to the child's cheek with his snout, he told the boy in no uncertain terms to get OFF.
No skin was broken, but the little boy was scared. While I felt awful for letting it get to that and even worse for Profile's behavior, I also couldn't shake the image that it was a CHILD that had done this. A CHILD was now afraid of my dog. Afraid of MY DOG. I wanted to sit down and cry.
I spoke with our boss, Licia, and promised that Profile would not be back anymore because I had heard the child on at least two occasions telling others that Profile "bit" him. That is not true, and I will fight that till I can't breathe...but I doubt it will go anywhere. Even if it does...he's not going back, at least until Licia says it's okay.
I love my animals so fiercely that the idea of one of them feeling that backed into a corner while on my watch physically hurts me. Here's hoping Hunk has a better time of it this weekend.
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