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Writings
by Other Folks
Max the
St. Bernard
Margaret
A. Miller, 05/26/01
Today I took my Saint Bernard with me to pick up some dog food. As
I drove, he sat happily in the back seat of my car, gazing out the window,
tongue hanging down, slobber winging by my face every once in awhile.
I was happy he was with me, yet kind of sad wondering why I didn't make
the effort to take him along more often. I know several valid reasons
why: I don't want him to get too hot in the car; the big guy attracts
attention and I worry that he might attract the wrong kind of attention
from people who don't like dogs; he drools and sometimes I'm just dressed
too nice for drool; he's a farm dog and sometimes he is just too dirty
for my car.
But it's sad
that I don't make more of an effort to make this wonderful dog's day by
taking him with me when I go for short jaunts. His favorite thing
in the world is to go "bye-bye" with me. A few times, I've taken
him on very short trips (5 - 10 minutes or so) to give him a little treat,
but he's just too smart for that and, when we get home, he won't get out
of the car. So I have to drive back into town for bologna
so that I can bribe him out of the car. Otherwise, he'll sit in there
for hours, protesting that his ride wasn't long enough. When a 230-pound
dog makes his mind up that the ride wasn't long enough, well, it wasn't
long enough.
Max is a simple
dog. It doesn't take much to make him happy: food that tastes good;
lots of clean, cool water; baths in the summer; belly scratches in the
morning before he will get up to start the day; reassurance that he's a
good boy. And rides in the car.
He's eight
years old now. As dogs go, Saints don't live that long; they're just
too big. He's starting to slow down. It takes him just a little
longer to get in the car than it used to. Someday I'm not going to
have him around, and then I'm going to wish I'd taken more time to do the
fun things that he loved so much. But I've always got reasons, too
busy, whatever. What is it about people that we'd rather have the
regrets later, than make the effort now?
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