Whole New Social Group

One of the things Oz did for me is change my circle of friends. In fact, I'd have to say she gave me a whole new social group. She did this in three ways.
The obvious way is that I met a lot of people while we were walking. That's nice, but it isn't revolutionary. I'm a pretty friendly guy; I meet a lot of people anyway.

The second way is change my interaction with people is through making me an event. As I said, I'm friendly -- but I'm not an event. On the other hand, Ozma was. She was an event for several reasons. And in several ways. First she assumed that we were already friends. At the same time there was a joy of discovery so that the old and the new came together at once. It was like she would say, "Hey! Look who's here!"

Sometimes she even mentioning, as if to say, "Don't you recognize them?"

And so, going along with things, I do like I did. And that meant more lively interaction. Joking, instead of just chatting.

However, the main way past change my social circle is through, well, putting me on a different level, an old level. To put it bluntly, when you have a dog, or a dog has you, you are immediately and intimately interwoven with three groups: people with dogs, dogs (and all other animals), and little kids.

What does this mean practically? Well it means when a Great Dane ran flopping Scooby Doo like across the street yesterday, running right for my car, my first thought was not hey there might be an accident, but I should go play with him. In fact, I kept the car stop otherwise, because I assumed that there would be other dogs running along after him. Why not? That's the way it's been for the past few years.

Ozma and I did things like race little kids home from the bus stop, greet senior citizens in wheelchairs were being helped out of band's – Oz would like their forearms gently, somehow where the she really shouldn't be written very active -- and stop by to see if any other dogs were available to come out to play. Sometimes, this took bizarre twists. We've taken more than one dog on a walk with us without meaning to. In fact, we've taken one dog run through the woods going on a mile-long loop as a kind of extended pack.

Little kids talk to adults casually, the little kids talk to guys with friendly friendly friendly dogs more than casually. They talk to them like they're living in amusement park rides, or clowns that don't scare them, or free pizza.

I like being an event. I miss my dog friends.



Greg