Can a dog become visibly conflicted when two worlds - one that he hates and another that he loves - collide? If the dog is our chocolate lab Aquinnah, the answer is a simple “you bet!”
Quinn, as we call him, despises the U.S. Postal Service and its minions. Whenever the mailman pulls up in front of our house, Quinn starts barking from his perch in the living room even before the poor guy steps out of his truck. At the climactic moment when the carrier puts the mail in the box on our front porch and drops the lid, which falls with a loud, metallic clang, Quinn's protest reaches a crescendo. He doesn't have an aggressive bone in his 85-pound body, but he can be a noisy boy.
So I knew we might be in for trouble when Quinn and I set out for a walk the other day. Looking up the street, along our route, I spotted a mail truck parked at the curb. Quinn eyed it suspiciously from the get-go, and stared at it balefully as we approached.
When the mail carrier popped off a porch and headed for the truck, two things were immediately apparent. This wasn’t our regular mailman. In fact, this carrier was a woman. And therein lay Quinn’s quandary. The Q Man may despise the USPS, but he is especially fond of women and children, for whom he always displays an affection that is stronger than his attraction to men.
As the carrier approached her truck, Quinn turned his head from side to side, eyeing the mail truck on our right, the woman on our left, the truck, the woman, the truck, the woman. Sporting a look of canine frustration on his phiz, he finally picked up speed and headed purposefully up the street without so much as a solitary woof, seemingly eager to put this mind-bending experience behind him.
Quinn, as we call him, despises the U.S. Postal Service and its minions. Whenever the mailman pulls up in front of our house, Quinn starts barking from his perch in the living room even before the poor guy steps out of his truck. At the climactic moment when the carrier puts the mail in the box on our front porch and drops the lid, which falls with a loud, metallic clang, Quinn's protest reaches a crescendo. He doesn't have an aggressive bone in his 85-pound body, but he can be a noisy boy.
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| The Q Man: On the lookout for mail carriers? Or ladies? |
When the mail carrier popped off a porch and headed for the truck, two things were immediately apparent. This wasn’t our regular mailman. In fact, this carrier was a woman. And therein lay Quinn’s quandary. The Q Man may despise the USPS, but he is especially fond of women and children, for whom he always displays an affection that is stronger than his attraction to men.
As the carrier approached her truck, Quinn turned his head from side to side, eyeing the mail truck on our right, the woman on our left, the truck, the woman, the truck, the woman. Sporting a look of canine frustration on his phiz, he finally picked up speed and headed purposefully up the street without so much as a solitary woof, seemingly eager to put this mind-bending experience behind him.
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