Hello and welcome back to the wonderful world of the Dogpound. Before we continue down the memory lane with Max, I need to bring you up to date on some things happening around the Dogpound. One of the more recent and important events to date has to do with the place where I work. Yes, I still do work for a living…if I tried to live off of writing…I would starve in short order.
Anyway…on Monday the 27th of July, a Monday…we received an email from Management telling us that 2015 year-to-date has not been a great year for us…at least budget-wise, and we need to be prepared to see some “restructuring” over the next few weeks. Now, I would have to expect that most of you understand that they were talking about “layoffs”…but in today’s political correctness world, we find other ways to say bad things. Can you imagine this conversation on the shop floor…“Hey Jim…you don’t seem to be too worried about losing your job.” “Naw…nothing to worry about. Management said they are just restructuring…there was not one word in that letter about layoffs. So just stay cool and do your job.” No, I cannot imagine that either. The whole plant has been on pins and needles the whole week until that Friday, when the “restructuring” started to fall on a number of employees in the plant. Fortunately I was spared…so far. They have only completed the shop floor restructuring…the office personnel are next.
I actually read somewhere that the explanation for using the word “undocumented aliens” versus the old “illegal alien,” was based on this. The “act” of crossing the border was illegal…not the person who did it. Hmmmmm I wonder how far I would get the next time I get pulled over for making an illegal U-turn…and I tell the police officer, ”The car made the illegal U-turn..I was just a passenger.” Not sure that would fly…you think? So let’s get back to Max.
Max’s coat was very thick; dark black on top…with a highlight of reddish brown when it grew out, along with a whiff of a wavy curl down his backbone. It looked like he had gotten a perm down his spine…no lie. The rest of his body had the markings of a Border Collie. Golden Brown highlights around the eyes, mouth, and down his legs with a large patch of white from his neck down through his chest. As I mentioned, I got him just after Christmas, so by the time warm weather had come around Max had grown quite a bit. I noticed one day that from his back side, it looked like he had put on ten pounds of fat…probably due to the lack of exercise during the cold weather…and besides with the warmer weather he might be cooler being shaved down.
I have to tell you, my jaw nearly hit the ground when the groomer brought Max out. Here was this thin-waisted dog that looked like he was more under-fed than over-fed. All that width I noticed on his hips was pure hair. I knew his coat was thick but that was crazy thick. Whenever he came home from the groomers he always looked like he had lost 10 pounds. I must admit, I was insanely jealous about that. I would be so lucky to come home from the barber looking ten pounds lighter. I would be even luckier just to have that much hair on my head. LOL
There we have it. As always be good, do good, play safe and remember sticks and bones may break my bones but politically correct words will make me feel better about myself.
JR
