Turtle in 5 feet of water in Key Largo, Florida

My email address has changed to duby@duby.com.

SOUTH BEACH

If you would like to view some of my South Beach images, like the one below, click here.

The image above, "South Beach Views" has been selected for display at the Boca Raton Museum of Art's 54th Annual All Florida Juried Competition and Exhibition.  

Palm Beach Pet Parade and My Thoughts on My Dogs Becoming Humanized

A recent listing for the Palm Beach’s 11th Annual Worth Avenue Pet Parade in the Gucci Courtyard piqued my interest. It was earlier than I normally get going, but get going I did.

My fear of dogs of most sizes and varieties clung to me like the kind of putrid odor that you remember from unpleasant childhood experiences.  This, until a few years ago, was my fate with canines. A dog bit my mother in her childhood.  By the time I met her, she was  a concentration camp survivor.  Long after her horrible bite, her teen years in the slave camps taught her just how mean a well-trained dog can be. As a child growing up in the Bronx, we crossed the street if a large dog approached. My mother’s fear was mine. I do not know whose fear was more intense.

Then, shortly before turning 50, I became ill. Daily exercise became imperative. I bought one dog for a walking companion, then another dog so that the first one would have a canine companion. More about them later.

Gradually, through contact and a learned trust, my fear of dogs has dissipated. At first, I was even slightly afraid of my Westies, when they growled and bared their teeth. Gradually, in 2 ½ years I have graduated to walking in dog parks among the largest of unchained beasts, virtually without fear.

With this background, I packed my Kodak SLR 14/n and a Nikon 28-200 mm lens and off I went to the rich peoples’ parade. I would have loved to have taken my dogs with me. They would have loved it. Anything but casual picture taking with the dogs is problematic. I simply cannot handle them and a camera at the same time. I left them at home on the patio.

Palm Beach is known as a place of excess. I intended to photograph this surfeit.

My photographic expectations were met. Some people showed up dressed for the South Florida morning and some were dressed for the show. The stunning woman with a chicken clutched closely to her breast, gave me food for thought. Later, she gladly posed so that I could get a better image of the roaster.
 

The friendly woman with the hat greeted my camera with a smile. While she obviously was there to be seen, she only wanted to be seen on her terms and from the best angle.
 

I was not the only Street Photographer. As I tried to avoid attention, this man was blending into the crowd, surreptitiously and innocuously gathering his images. I enlarged the image of this gentleman and plan on hanging it in my work area to remind me of what I must all look like when I am trying to sneak around gathering my images.
 

But the team that makes me wonder about myself is this love affair between woman and dog.
But the team that makes me wonder about myself is this love affair between woman and dog.

But the team that makes me wonder about myself is this love affair between woman and dog.

My dogs, originally obtained as walking companions, have gradually morphed from puppies into semi-humans. One in particular continues to take on human like qualities, more and more readily.   He follows me around, wanting to be petted, talked to, paid attention to, anything, as long as it is from a human. The more he acts like me, the more I love him. The other dog, Latte, not instinctively as homo-sapien friendly, has learned from Tango, which in turn has brought her more love from me.

What does this all say about me? My early thoughts about the ownership of dogs gravitated to thoughts of penning by man acting as a conqueror and control freak. I never could quite understand what I perceived as a desire to dominate what I imagined were wild animals. While I have been disabused of much of this nonsense, some of it is true.

My justification, I guess is that the dogs, in their own way, really love us as well. They appreciate and accept the love and good treatment they receive and the attention that is lovingly adored on them. That does not mean they would not like the woods, as long as they could stay comfortable. They might love you just was well as me tomorrow, if you treated them the way I do. However, these dogs get my company, my affection, my attention. Given the fact that we have bred and trained dogs to be our companions, they have grown to need us as we often need them. As is so true with relations non-canine, the more you put in, the more you get out.

Back home to my wonderful Westies. I will not get into how they are unique. I want to discuss my anthropomorphizing them.

One of the dogs, the youngest, Tango, is a lover. He reacts to my human touches and emotions and obviously wants to please me. The elder, Latte, is now starting to take on these traits, to a lesser extent. The more their actions or emotions are human like, the more I adore them.

And my love for them increases as life moves on with them This relationship is something special, and but for the lack of equality in the exchange, I think that dogs have earned their title of man’s best friend.

 

duby@bellsouth.net