Alti

Not all the dogs on my route are extraordinary; some are just plain ol’ loveable mutts of average ability.  So it is with “Alti”, a dog of no fixed breed and (as far as I can tell) possessing little to no ambition.  I say this because unlike so many dogs that might start barking, or come running when they see you – you’ll never know Alti is even out in the yard until you walk around a corner and nearly trip over her.

Alti is a medium sized dog, although her size is accentuated by her girth (she’s been hitting the kibble a little too hard) and a long, thick coat of fur that would serve her well if she lived in the Yukon.  Her name is a derivative from a cross street just one house up from where she lives: Alturas.  Why didn’t the folks just name her after the street they live on?  Well… they lived on a numbered street, and even a dog wants to be known by a name, not a number!

Alti is so passive that if she’s soaking up a little sunshine on the sidewalk and there is a parcel I have to lug up to the porch, I have to be careful to either walk around the dog or step over her.  She willmove, but only to roll over on her back so I will be suckered into rubbing her tummy.

Occasionally she will bark.  It’s rare, but it has happened a couple of times.  Sometimes if she’s in the house and hears me putting a parcel on the porch she’ll let out a “woof” or two.  This is more or less a “warning” telling me that she’s lumbering toward the doggie door at the rear of the house and will come meet me out front just as soon as she gets a little momentum going.  When she gets there I’m usually greeted with a wagging tail and then a quick roll onto her back for the traditional tummy rub.

The height of “pathetic” was attained the other day as I was taking a parcel up to the porch (yes, they seem to get a lot of goodies through the mail).  The dog wasn’t in her doggie-bed by the front door, nor did I hear her inside the house.  As I turned to head back to the truck Alti started barking at me… from underneath a bush beside the porch.  As soon as I said, “I hear you,” she hushed up.  But would she come out from her napping spot?  No… that would require more effort than she wished to expend.  But it was obvious she still wanted some attention.  She rolled over on her back and gave her tail a few good wags.

It was up to me to get down on all fours (woof, woof) and reach into the bush to give a quick tummy rub.  I’m sure that to Alti this was just “normal behavior”.  But if any of the neighbors were watching the mailman crawling around their neighbor’s front yard and reaching into a bush… well, who cares what they think!  Judging from the wagging tail as I rubbed the tummy inside the shrubbery, I was doing “OK”!  That’s Alti’s opinion, and she’s sticking to it!