Why “Around the Hydrant”?
Meet Porter, originally uploaded by jessimacaah.
I have a dog. My first dog. He became a member of my family just over eight months ago and life hasn’t been the same since. For starters, I spend a lot more time hanging around fire hydrants.
My dog doesn’t blog. He doesn’t know how to use a computer. (An explanation of why/how he uses Dogster and DogBook will follow in a later post…) He can’t keep in touch with his pals the way I do. So what does he do? He sniffs butts and visits hydrants.
I once heard someone equate the fire hydrant to a sort of message board for dogs. I like to think of it as the canine equivalent to the office water cooler: A central meeting place that serves more of a social purpose than you’d think an object designed for holding water would or could.
So it is that every time my pooch takes a break from a brisk walk to sniff a hydrant or lifts his leg to mark one, he’s not just prolonging his time outdoors or relieving himself – he’s checking to see which of his friends, or adversaries, have been around recently and letting them all know “Porter was here.”
Yup – these are the things I think about now that I have a dog.
Which brings me to why I’m starting this blog. I think of it as the online, human-readable extension of the doggy fire hydrant messaging system.
I’m serious.
The vision for this blog is still very much a work in progress. For now, I see it as a way for me to explore and share the curiosities I encounter in this new world of dog ownership. Along the way I hope to give voice to the trends, news, ideas and controversies that I imagine would drive conversation for dogs around the hydrant.
You know, if they could talk…
Tags: dog behavior, dog ownership, DogBook, dogs, Dogster, Puppy
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