blue and other dogs

After reading some people's posts and finally getting around to writing my own, I've made some observations with the help of the great Cesar Millan (aka dog whisperer). I was reading David's post about the assumption of estrogen and was thinking to myself that I could see exactly where he was coming from. I definitely thought there was some sort of gender undertones in the story when I first read through it. The turning point for me though was not when I looked at the author's masculine name; rather, it was when I happened to watch the Dog Whisperer late one night.

So in the episode I was watching, Cesar comes to this couple's house where this adorably fat basset hound is afraid of the owner's husband. It turns out that the dog was a rescued animal, and that she was not only biased against the owner's husband, but she was afraid of all males in general, partly because men abused her when she was a puppy. It made me think of 2 animals in particular. The first was my roommate's dog Daisy that he purchased from an animal shelter. She too was abused as a puppy and was afraid of all males. It took her several months to begin to warm up to us and is still hesitant around strangers to this day. The 2nd animal I thought about was Blue's mother. In the initial description of Pan, Graves says, "She came to us mature and a bit over-disciplined, and if you tried to teach her a task too roughly she would refuse permanently to have anything to do with it" (p.117). If Daisy was difficult to befriend as a puppy, it certainly would have been difficult to get a mature dog to overcome her fears. Graves goes on to say that "Occasionally she bit people too, always men, though she was nervous enough around unfamiliar children that we never truster her alone with them. Women, for her own secret reasons, she liked more or less indiscriminately" (p.117). Not only did this quote strike a chord with me because of Daisy, but also because of my experience with anoter friend's dog named Buddy. Buddy was a small dark pug, who only barked at dark-skinned people. I'm not sure where the hatred was rooted in Buddy's little heart, but for whatever reason it was, Buddy did not enjoy their company.

Cesar Millan's client, Daisy, and Buddy all helped me realize that this short story was not about the liberation of women or even men, for that matter. This story is about pets. There is no reason to try to analyze the characteristics attributed to the animals used in the story to try to get a deeper meaning out of it. There isn't even a moral to the story. It is simply a story about Graves and his relationship with his dogs. Blue's mother was an over-disciplined dog who was afraid of abusives as a result. It is only natural for any animal to react in such a way to abuse from dominating figures. Even the description of the mischievous dachsund Watty is an accurate one, as dachsunds tend to be a bit naughty.

I think once I reread the story with this in mind, it became a much more intimate and beautiful setting. I was able to be a part of the author's life by sharing his experiences with his pets and not worrying about trying to figure out what literary devices are working through the text. Or maybe I just thought it was beautiful because then it became mindless entertainment.