When we first brought Barry home I noticed how often people would run the other way upon seeing Barry. I have definitely mentioned it in previous posts. It bothered me so much how people reacted to seeing him. I was so consumed with anger/confusion about those who were scared or just didn't like dogs that I failed to see how often people would come up to us and ask to pet Barry or make comments about him and how beautiful he is.
Now, for me, I just think Barry is gorgeous. He is well built, very healthy, shiny stark white and black spotted coat, sweet pink around his perfect snout with freckles (I call them freckles though, most would just say spots), large almond eyes, not too-droopy mouth (many pitties have that cute droopy mouth thing that I love - Barry has it but it's not as pronounced as I've seen), healthy white teeth, long strong neck, large heart shaped face, and soft pink belly. I assumed I was just biased to how lovely he is.
Lately I've come to see how popular he is. There isn't a day that goes by (no exaggeration, at least once a day) that someone doesn't say something to the effect of how gorgeous he is, or how cute, or what a nice dog, or can I pet it? People will stop in their MOVING VEHICLES to shout out the window about how nice looking Barry is. I think since we adopted Barry we've had people stop in their vehicles to say something about Barry to us or to our dog walker (she always lets us know) five times. Is that normal? I'm not sure, really. I think Barry is worth about 25 out-of-car-window compliments. Oh, I forgot about the time we were crossing the street and a guy in a jacked up Jeep was turning right (in the direction opposite us) when he popped his head out the window, nodded, and then gave us the thumbs up while speeding away with tires screeching.
We have a lady that lives in our building who has said to us multiple times that Barry is the one reason she wants to get a dog. That he is her favorite dog of all the dogs she's met in our building. I know that I've mentioned that the building we live in is very dog friendly. It's like a *dog-zoo, our building. I'm not kidding. There are easily over 100 dogs in our 189 unit building. I know of people that have two dogs so it's possible that there are quite a lot more than just 100. So, Barry above all others. To this girl. Well, to me and Husband too, of course. I could say that's impressive. Perhaps she's just being nice.
There are the people that stop us and our dog walker as we're walking Barry. They like to have short discussions about Barry and give him a quick pet. Barry is totally oblivious during the chat and pet. He's seriously thinking about that squirrel he possibly smells 10 yards away. That is the most common encounter for us. Or those that say something as they walk by with big grins and comments of adoration.
I guess I'm starting to realize that more people like Barry than are scared of him. We still get the street crossers and the looks but for the most part I hardly notice the negativity anymore. I know it's there but it seems like it's less and less noticeable.
Ignorance and bad press have made this breed more susceptable to over reaction by the uninformed. We had that problem when we first rescued Smokey too, but after a few months and a lot of training kids were running in the yard with you and Smokey oblivious to him except for he loved to play :)
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