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Tag Archives: dogs

In which Yaris gets her comeuppance

I’ve decided that maybe all GSDs are punks to Labs.  One of my coworkers from THEM also has a GSD/Lab dog set.  His are normal sized, but that doesn’t really pertain to this story.  Anyway, one time his GSD tricked the Lab to get into the crawlspace under his parents’ house.  I guess the GSD lifted the gate to the crawlspace and then told the Lab that going into the crawlspace was really fun.  The Lab went inside and then the GSD closed the gate and ran off, trapping the Lab under the house.  What a punk.  It reminds me of the time Yaris tricked Horse out of his bed.  The Lab was found some hours later.

So, we now know that GSDs are punks to Labs (and possibly to other dogs in general), but surely they receive their comeuppance at some point?  Yes.  Or at least, Yaris did.

The dogs went outside after dinner one time and Horse came back in after only a few moments.  Since I was watching TV on the couch, he decided to lie down on the floor right next to the couch…which happens to be right in front of the doggy door.  Yaris was still outside and when she decided to come back inside, she realized the door was blocked.  I guess she sat outside for a while to see if Horse would move.  He didn’t.  He got up and just sat in front of the door.

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Look familiar?  Yaris did the exact same thing to him when he was stuck outside before I replaced the existing door with a giant one.

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Finally got her comeuppance.

Horse blocked her like that until she started crying and knocked on the door to get my attention.  I laughed at her and then shooed Horse out of the way so she could get in.

Punk.

The person status

Sometimes I like explaining my introvertedness like this: I can’t handle people.  Well duh, you may think.  But what you don’t see is that there is a corollary to that theorem, which is: but I can handle persons, even a lot of persons.  And now you’re all like, huhh???

Yes, it’s true.  I can’t handle people, but I can be around a lot of persons.  But it’s for specific and rather nuanced definitions of “people” and “person.”

Here is a standard definition of “people” as given by Merriam-Webster.

plural :  humans making up a group or assembly or linked by a common interest

And now one for “person.”

human, individual

A person is a human and people refers to a group of these humans.  So how is it that I can stand to be around persons but not people, which would basically be the same thing as persons?

Well, I call attention to the second part of the definition of “person,” being “individual.”  I can stand being around individuals in that they are a separate entities who mean something to me.  But when I refer to people, I don’t really see the group of humans as separate individuals who have significant meaning in my life.  They’re viewed more as a mass or just even as separate humans who don’t have significant meaning in my life.  And since I have so little energy to spend on being in social situations already, I cannot spare much to being around people.  What energy I have will be dedicated to persons in my life and these persons might even be gathered in a large group and you might see me socializing with them.  And it’s solely because I see myself in a gathering of persons and not around people.

That being said, there are still differing levels of personhood for me.  I’d roughly divide them into four different groups and I think I’ll only elaborate on the last one.

  • Honorary person status
  • Person-3 status
  • Person-2 status
  • Person-1 status: There are very few individuals who have this status as there are very few whom I’m willing to be around all the time, even on the worst days of not wanting to talk to anyone and wanting to be by myself.  Those with person-1 status would include my immediate family, the closest of friends, and…Yaris.  Yes, Yaris.  Who is not human.  But I can handle her being around me even on the most introverted of days, probably more so than any actual human person.  She probably helps be get through those days better than any human person.  Horse doesn’t have person-1 status, in case you’re wondering.  He might be…person-3 at best.

Um…I’m a jerk.  Haha.