Dogs and Their Owners

There have been a few things that I’ve bared witness to since being in Hawaii. Some are funny, some ridiculous and some stupid. Even though I haven’t personally seen any of these things in other parts of the country (and I’ve driven across it 2 times), I’m sure that they occur. Hopefully, they just don’t occur as often as they do here.
There are many, many dog owners here in Hawaii. If I had my way, our dogs (okay, Joe’s dog and “my” dog, which isn’t really my dog at all but he’s in love with Joe’s dog – therefore, they’re a package deal) would be here right now. But the circumstances are such that they can’t be here yet. I’ve tried to convince Joe that we should buy another dog, but he hasn’t (yet) caved to my persuasion. Joe has Dixie, a little dog in a Rottweiler body. I say this because she likes to cuddle and sit with or on you, depending what her mood du jour is. She is super sweet most of the time, but every once in a while her b!tchy alpha female side roars its ugly head and then she gets in trouble. “My” dog – which is really Joe’s parents dog, but as I mentioned above - is in love with Dixie and so they’ve since become a package deal, much to Joe’s dismay. Wherever Dixie goes, Hershey goes. Hershey is a mischievous and scared English Springer Spaniel and probably the funniest dog I’ve ever met. Anyway, to get back on track here, we have dogs, and eventually they will be here with us.
There are two things that I’ve found to be true, in regard to dog owners here. The first is that everyone brings their dogs to the beach. Hard to believe, right? Most dogs I’ve seen here are little – the ones that can ride in a basket on a bicycle and most of them actually do. However, I was at the beach the other day and there was a beautiful and younger looking black lab that was tied up in the shade. The beach was busy and there were many other dogs. For some reason, the owner thought it a good idea to let this dog off the leash. I could see if there were few people on the beach, but the beach was freakin’ packed full of beer guzzling men, bronzed beauties and spf 60 slathered babies. Now, the minute this woman let her dog off the leash, it took off running like an escaped convict. The dog was sniffing and roaming and seemed to be a very nice dog, just excited to be let lose. The woman proceeded to scream and yell at the dog for about 30 minutes. Mind you, the dog was back and right by her side, but every once in a while would mosey around to meet and greet. And this woman kept doing her own thing was screaming at the top of her lungs at the dog. It was really quite embarrassing and annoying. I think instead of screaming at the dog, making her look like a crazy lady, a better option would have been to simply either put the dog back on its leash or left it at home. It’s not exactly rocket science.
Additionally, on the way to the beach, I saw something that I have NEVER seen and thought it couldn’t possibly be real. As you may imagine, scooters (or those fans of Scrubs – Sashas) are fairly popular out here. They are the ultimate beach town transportation – cheap on gas and easy to park. I was headed out to Lanikai by bike and I stopped at the top of the little hill to take in the beautiful scenery because it’s an amazing view of the ocean and Kailua Beach. However, something roadside caught my eye and so I turned. What did I see, you wonder? I saw a man driving a scooter with two red milk crates stacked one on top of the other. This may not seem all that interesting, except for the fact he had his dog carefully teetering on the scooter, within the confines of the two milk crates!! Call me crazy, but that didn’t seem like the safest transportation for a dog. And it was not a little dog – it was a yellow lab. A yellow lab, sitting precariously on the back of a scooter, held up by milk crates. His front paws dangled over the crates edge and were almost on the drivers back, which I have to say, cracked me up. It was dangerous but definitely funny. I suppose, it takes all kinds to make the world go ‘round.