Sunday
Feb102008
Dogs & Dragons - Chinese New Year
Sunday, February 10, 2008 at 10:10AM
Mocha-the-Dog saw a DRAGON yesterday.
She didn't like it.
We were walking past the fancy Japanese restaurant, STEEL, on the corner of our building, on our way to the...uh..."package store" (as they like to call the liquor store here in the South) across the street -- and no, that has nothing to do with seeing dragons last night.
The doors of the restaurant were open, and we could hear and then see the drummers, pounding on the big tribal drums: bom-bom, Bom-Bom, BOM-BOM...
And there was the dragon: It was an amazing sight, a Chinese parade dragon, in the Japanese restaurant(?!). Apparently, they are celebrating Chinese New Year this weekend, with the dragon show and all. (Maybe it's Indochine cuisine, lots of Sushi!)
The dragon was fabulous: 15 feet long and all shimmery and shiny with heavy paper scales and huge red eyes. There were 3 or 4 people under/inside the dragon, undulating and dancing the dragon around the restaurant.
Mocha stopped cold, staring in at the dragon from the sidewalk, in her full-alert pose. Although she is 75lbs and a BBBD (Big Black & Brown Dog), she is very timid. I don't think there is a protective bone in her body, as evidenced by her tendency to take a liking to complete strangers, even when they show up unauthorized inside our condo. But I digress--
Mocha, as a dog, seems to hearken back to some kind of hunting dog, way back in her mixed-mutt ancestry. She is some kind of hunting dog, especially birds. She'll chase, up to a point, but then she stands still as a statue and just glares intently, fully focused on whatever it is. She can do that for 10 - 15 minutes or more at a time, at full-alert. Fortunately, she is a very quiet dog and not a barker. She growls and will "ruff" very quietly, but mostly it just puffs out her lips a little and you really can't hear her. (Someone once told me that's "pointing," which would be her job as a hunting dog: to point to the prey that has been killed and fallen, for the hunter to go get it. I don't think she is so much a "retriever" and she is certainly not a water dog.)
Obviously, she's a dragon hunting dog. It took everything I had to drag her away.
It was pretty incredible to see a Chinese Dragon on the way home from the liquor store.
And to think that we saw it on West Peachtree Street--
[Did you catch that Dr. Seuss reference?]
She didn't like it.
We were walking past the fancy Japanese restaurant, STEEL, on the corner of our building, on our way to the...uh..."package store" (as they like to call the liquor store here in the South) across the street -- and no, that has nothing to do with seeing dragons last night.
The doors of the restaurant were open, and we could hear and then see the drummers, pounding on the big tribal drums: bom-bom, Bom-Bom, BOM-BOM...
And there was the dragon: It was an amazing sight, a Chinese parade dragon, in the Japanese restaurant(?!). Apparently, they are celebrating Chinese New Year this weekend, with the dragon show and all. (Maybe it's Indochine cuisine, lots of Sushi!)
The dragon was fabulous: 15 feet long and all shimmery and shiny with heavy paper scales and huge red eyes. There were 3 or 4 people under/inside the dragon, undulating and dancing the dragon around the restaurant.
Mocha stopped cold, staring in at the dragon from the sidewalk, in her full-alert pose. Although she is 75lbs and a BBBD (Big Black & Brown Dog), she is very timid. I don't think there is a protective bone in her body, as evidenced by her tendency to take a liking to complete strangers, even when they show up unauthorized inside our condo. But I digress--
Mocha, as a dog, seems to hearken back to some kind of hunting dog, way back in her mixed-mutt ancestry. She is some kind of hunting dog, especially birds. She'll chase, up to a point, but then she stands still as a statue and just glares intently, fully focused on whatever it is. She can do that for 10 - 15 minutes or more at a time, at full-alert. Fortunately, she is a very quiet dog and not a barker. She growls and will "ruff" very quietly, but mostly it just puffs out her lips a little and you really can't hear her. (Someone once told me that's "pointing," which would be her job as a hunting dog: to point to the prey that has been killed and fallen, for the hunter to go get it. I don't think she is so much a "retriever" and she is certainly not a water dog.)
Obviously, she's a dragon hunting dog. It took everything I had to drag her away.
It was pretty incredible to see a Chinese Dragon on the way home from the liquor store.
And to think that we saw it on West Peachtree Street--
[Did you catch that Dr. Seuss reference?]
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