Today's Sunshine

Today Monster and I met a man out walking his two dogs (Labrador/Border Collie mix, and a little white Fuzzball of some sort, both ladies). They are very well behaved, and he always walks them off leash. He's one of the very few (perhaps the only one by now?) who isn't scared of Monster, and he first walked up and greeted Monster (invaluable, Monster needs experience with greeting strangers), and then convinced me to let his dogs greet Monster over on a green by the side of the road... I don't really believe Monster is going to hurt anyone, he's really quite friendly once he gets over the terror, but I do worry his behavior is going to freak people out. When a dog looks like Monster, people aren't going to cut him the kind of slack they'd give a Poodle.

How could anyone prefer a Poodle to my handsome self?!

Monster did certainly growl and tense up, but when they didn't back away he became interested enough to drop the act. They played together (Monster still on the leash) for quite some time. Eventually I was talked into following the man and his dogs to a much more remote area (OK, this is starting to sound weird... It's not that kind of story, all right?), and there let Monster off the leash to play more freely. It was awesome! Monster really needs positive meetings like this, and I feel happy for him that not everyone hates him too.

Now, if only I had a reliable recall...