It is said that barking dogs don't bite but, a week and a half ago, on another trip up the mountains ( one of my favorite spots in this area of Central Portugal ) I seriously started to doubt that saying...
Let's go back four decades or so, to the early 1980s...
When my twin sister and I left my mother's womb, there was already a dog in our household. I believe my parents took it in, a month or so after their first child, my older brother, had passed away almost immediately after being born.
Less than a year later, my mom found out that she was now pregnant of twins, my sister and I. ✨
The two of us were born a year and four months after the older brother that we never got to meet, and a year and 3 months after 'Dingle', a black and white dog named after a little town in Ireland.
Dingle was a border collie and he was a bit of a bastard ( figuratively: mixed with something else, an unknown breed ). Nevertheless, he must have been one of the sweetest dogs ever. He lived with us for 15 years - eventually around what ended up being a family of 6, with four children - and never hurt a fly.
Or, in all honesty, I think he tried to kill flies, every now and then, biting the air instead but hey: do you know anyone who likes these little buggers? I don't.
Now I could go on and on about that dog, that left this earthly plane in 1997 or I could, instead, fastforward to another dog, a 100% border collie - pure breed - from an actual sheep herding line - that my parents decided to adopt, back in 2010.
By then, my three siblings and I had all left our parental house. Now I think of it, my youngest brother ( who was born at the end of 1990 ) had probably just gotten around to living by himself, so getting a(nother) dog might have had to do with 'empty nest syndrome'.
Talking about empty nest... perhaps it wasn't that empty, as I - the oldest son - struggled so much with life ( being a stubborn creative with a worthless University degree ) that I ended up back at my parents' house, several times, for short amounts of time, between 2010 and 2013.
Because of this, I also took part in raising this second border collie, Spikkel, who appeared to be a bit borderline and way more active and restless than its predecessor, the super ZEN Dingle.
Spikkel ( Dutch for 'dot' ), named after the black dots on its white nose , was still super friendly though and very cute and funny.
So much so, in fact, that in 2012, when I was working on one of my many past film projects, titled '12 movies 12 minutes', I decided to use him as the main character in one of my shorts.
I have put a link to 12movies12minutes #7: A Dogumentary underneath this post, for those of you interested in watching this 12 minute short.
It is fair to say that Spikkel didn't hurt many flies either. I don't remember him biting anyone, but I have to admit that he was quite a bit 'wild'er than Dingle. Not that that was hard at all ;<)
For those of you who are still reading and curious why I picked the title above my post, you will have to be patient.
What I will you though, right now, is that @vindiesel1980 and I ran into some less friendly dogs, during our hike a week and a half ago
Now let me end this with a picture of the other Vincent driving the two of us up the mountains, still smiling
and a teaser type of photo for what happened next, a couple of hours later, at the top of the Serra da Estrela :
"an innocent puppy is being interviewed in a studio about its young life, but the interviewer seems to have a hidden agenda."
Fun Fact(s): The voice behind Spikkel, the dog being interviewed, is yours truly ( this Vincent ). The interviewer used to be my camera man and editor, between 2010 and 2013. We had filmed Spikkel for a while but had run out of inspiration and ended up doing this improv voice over to make at least kind of sense of the edited images. It was our 7th film in half a year's time.
A jolly good read Vincent m'dear and I've already got the popcorn ready for the next exciting instalment. In the meantime, here are a few flies on which to feast your eyes.
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As to bastards, sure I'm one myself, born out of wedlock at a time when a huge stigma surrounded such things.
Your poor sainted mother! I'm sure she was thrilled to have you return again and again and again...sure who wouldn't be?:)
😘
Awesome memories of dogs, dogs are really good animals and sometimes they act crazy. Sometimes behaves strangely. I liked the dogumentary
It really depends on the owner(s) of the dog and how they raise it,
just like with kids ;<)
Glad you liked my dogumentary :<)
✨
It’s great to hear about your dogs’ stories friend. They really do have such unique personalities. Never heard of barking dogs don't bite till today.
Unique personalities indeed :<)
It is an expression and basically stands for "words are not the same as actions" but it is also said that growling dogs are more dangerous ( more prone to attack someone ) than barking ones.
thanks for the lesson friend, I've learned something new
Spikkel may be a barking dog but don’t bit. There are so many dogs like that but we never can tell the one that would bark or bite
That’s just the issue and as for me, I’m scared of all kinds of dogs
Spikkel did not bark much. Only out of excitement. For example when we had visitors and he was not able to see them. He loved people!
Have you ever been bitten by a dog? Where does your fear come from?
Biters, pain in the chuff. My mate has a really bitey dog which makes it really annoying to visit him!
Are you talking about his partner in code? ;<)
Lol, that could be a lot of my mates!! 🤣🤣
calling them bitches would be a bit harsh
Etymology is a bitch 😀😀
Hahaha!
Hmm
Anyways, I’m very much scared of dogs
A friend once got bitten by a
Bitten by a ... ?
By a dog
I thought I completed that