Calm under pressure

DIXIE AND ME GETTING CLOSE

I don't know if this is good or bad, but Dixie has one big advantage over our former mutt Lady.

When kids would run toward Lady, she'd back away from them. She probably felt like she was being attacked. I remember a boy trying to pet Lady at the dog park; she trotted away from him, and he ran after her; she'd look back to see if he was still coming (if he was, she'd speed up).

Our current dog, Dixie, is more calm when under siege. She just sits there waiting while kids run toward her to pet her. While Lady wasn't deliriously happy about being petted, Dixie craves the attention.

Is it good to just sit there when someone is running at you? Probably not. Still, it works. The kids get to pet her, and she gets to be petted.

Katie sometimes ran across the road so the kids over there could pet her; I never saw anyone try to pet Scottie (like Katie, a collie); and no one could pet Buddy (other than me, or Holly).

P.S.: I just looked through the photos on this blog (it just took seconds) and noticed that I don't have one photo of Lady being petted. I don't have any of Dixie yet, either; but I will get some.

EMAIL: tgilli52@gmail.com  TWITTER: EDITORatWORK.

Other entries from The Dog Blog

• Katie cried

• Growl and pull

• ... said the spider to ...

• The Dog Diary (2015)

• The Dog Diary (2014)

• 13-plus years with my dog Lady

• OOH! OOH! The stereophonic huskies

• What Lady and Michael Jackson had in common

EDITOR@WORK blog entries

• You really DO need an editor

• Reminders for would-be novelists

• What I do when I'm editing

• What I charge (it's a deal) and what I edit

• Slogging through the Internet

• J-school: More eyes on your stories

• J-school: Go out and learn

• Rookie mistakes for magazine writers

Blog entries from The Auto Racing Journal

• Angel in Black: Remembering Dale Earnhardt Sr.

(a book of great stories about the Intimidator)

• Then Junior Said to Jeff...

(the book of great NASCAR stories)

• My best day as a sports writer

• Jeff Gordon's milk toast to Dale Earnhardt

• Wayne Auton: A life in racing

More blog entries by Tom Gillispie

• Resume for a writer and editor

• An editor's views on powerful writing

• Advice for be and would-be novelists

• Links to TG's stories online

• Favorite quotes

• What I do when I'm editing

Anecdotes by Tom Gillispie

• Good Samaritan

• The PRESS cap and my friend Mike

• Watching TV

• No luck with Billy Sims

• Wipeout at Death Valley

• Days with rainbows

• A desperate writer working in the dark

• Yer outta there!