As a guide dog I meet lots of different animals. I often get to meet other dogs when I’m walking with mom – okay, maybe meet is too strong a term since mom usually makes me walk straight past them without even having the chance to be sociable – but at least I can wag at them as I trot past. Once I encountered a guinea fowl who was wandering along the row of trees and bushes beside the railway line–it wasn’t there when we returned from our walk so I hope it found its way back to its other guinea fowl friends. And, of course, everyone knows that squirrels are Public Enemy No1 in my life so I won’t let myself get distracted to chase that topic again. Basically, I consider myself a cosmopolitan dog who can deal with almost anything I encounter.
But nothing could have prepared me for what happened one day when mom and I went to give a speech in the centre of Cape Town.
I mean, who would have thought that a venue in the centre of Cape Town would be infested by chickens? And I really do mean infested – they were everywhere I looked. Admittedly I’d never met a chicken before and wasn’t sure what they were. So I didn’t really pay them much attention at first.
Until one scuttled up to me and started clucking in my face. I did what any sensible dog would do – I leant forward and gave the chicken a big sniff.
Imagine my surprise when fine feathers whooshed up my nose and made me sneeze!
I’m still not sure why mom and the ladies from the SA Guide-Dogs Association found it so funny when the chicken fluttered away in such consternation. I’m not even sure why the chicken got so angry – I mean, it was just a sneeze!
I’ve said it before and I’m sure I’ll say it again – sometimes humans just don’t make sense to me!
