Flipped Over Horses

by Sharon Block

One Thanksgiving really stands out in my mind. I was home visiting my family on the West Coast and decided to take my sister's Kerry Blue for a walk.

Zoey, you should know, is a remarkably responsible and dignified dog. In fact, I worry about her having any sense of humor at all. My sister swears that Zoey is quite normal, and very much the social butterfly in the company of other dogs, but as far as I know, she never appears to do anything ridiculous. She's a very stylish Kerry, and is unnervingly well-behaved. I often find her looking at me with a puzzled expression; I think she knows I fit in with the family somehow, and, therefore, she should give me the benefit of the doubt and obey my commands. But since I live 3,000 miles away, I rarely see her except in the context of sneaking her table scraps after Thanksgiving dinner (she accepts these gravely and politely, only occasionally casting guilty looks over her shoulder at my sister).

Zoey lives in San Diego, where she has plenty of opportunity to play on the beach with beach creatures like seagulls and other dogs, but I was taking her out on the trails that line the hills near my parents' home. These trails are also used by coyotes, racoons, skunks, and horses. Since it was the day after Thanksgiving, we ran across quite a few people on the trail. Zoey had regarded all of them politely, but pretty much ignored everyone.

We were almost back to the car when we saw a group of horseback riders approaching. This was clearly something new to Zoey. Much interested, she bounced up to them. The horses were completely unfazed, and regarded her with incurious contempt. But Zoey, undeterred, continued bouncing up to them--each bounce getting a little higher as she began to realize that these creatures were quite vertical. As she came up next to them, she lolled her head so far back to take this all in that, during one bounce, she flipped herself completely over backwards.

At this, all four horses stopped in their tracks (perhaps because their riders were convulsed with laughter). Zoey, looking as if such an experience was completely the norm, finished her flip by rolling over her shoulder like a professional volleyball player recovering from a dive for the ball, and proceeded to check out the horses, nose to nose.

Then, with consummate dignity, she trotted onwards. I think it must be that Zoey, raised with my two nieces, feels that since human children do such ridiculous things, the best way to stand out in the family is by being the well-behaved, mature chilld.

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