Dogs 121-130

Sometimes you'll be walking around the Mission on your way somewhere when suddenly you see something so damned fluffy you just can't stand it. This was one of those times. I'd've hugged him if I hadn't heard him barking a loud, forceful bark on my way up the sidewalk.


This guy just wants to know where his tail went. He's calm about it right now because he's sure there's a reasonable answer (like maybe it's just behind a part of him that the camera can't see), but if there isn't one? I don't know -- he might cry.


It's the look of happy patience like this fella's got that lets you know dogs have a kind of faith in us -- faith that we'll return, faith that maybe we'll have something tasty for them to gnaw on -- that makes them basically the greatest animals ever. I'm including platypuses and the quokka in that estimate.


I swear this was the softest-looking dog in the entirety of the Castro on the Saturday I took this. The kind you want to pick up and carry away and maybe make a little rug out of. OK, not so much that last part.


Softest. Dog. Ever. And look at the eyes! That's his baby harp seal impression. You know, the kind that are always on the calendars? Right; those.

I have no idea what breed he is; my guess based on his tail is maybe part Akita or something? Can you imagine what it'd be like to have a dozen of these in the same place at once?


Somewhere there's a dog high school reunion missing its "Most Likely to Look Like My Crazy Gun-Nut Bus Driver" nominee from 1994.


I was actually trying to capture the way this dude's tail was wagging -- like he thought he could make a wish come true or something -- but now I'm struck by how much he looks like one of those weird carved-wood dogs you see in the living rooms of rich people with nothing better to do. At least one of the houses that line Marina Blvd has one of these. Somebody back me up on this.


Look how clean that damn sidewalk is! Look how puzzled this guy is! "I didn't realize it, but this is the Parking Meter That Jumps You Through Time. Can someone untie me from it before this weirdly sterile dystopia collapses in on itself in an orgy of violence from which nothing living or ordered could hope to escape?"


What is it about these yellow Labs and their mournful faces, even when their tails are wagging? I was this close to giving this fella a slice of the pizza I'd bought (I was walking out of Giorgio's on Clement).

I think it's the eyebrows. Or just the eyes in general.


Okay, you can try to tell me these two aren't the toughest-looking pair you've ever seen, but you know in your heart you'd be full of lies.


The soundtrack to this picture is something with a solid beat, a bass line thicker than year-old molasses, and a guitar run through a wah pedal that even Hendrix would've backed away from in silence, just shaking his head.


These two on the other hand might not be the toughest, but they are definitely the most ready to spring into action.* Or at least the one in front is. I'm not so sure about the one in the back.

* catchphrase (c) Topato Potato