My Baja home living room (great room?) is my outdoor patio. No place in this little Mexican house to enjoy indoors unless you need to use the
facility, cook or sleep. So all the things that come close to the patio loom large to me and mine and that’s just how we like it. We can see and hear
all the comings and goings of the people, vehicles, animals and more without moving a muscle.
As soon as we settled in here almost 2 decades ago, we acquired walk-on beach dogs. We noticed they went nuts when pickups with dogs in them came
roaring down the dirt streets near our gate. From the very first encounter it was clear that the vehicle would get all the loud spirited barks even
when the offending other dogs were not in the vehicle. Behind a few cold Pacificos I made a plan to borrow some newcomer’s pickup, put my dogs in the
back, cruise the whole village causing canine mayhem --- what a great gag because from that day forward the owner of the truck would be singled out
solely by the sound of his muffler/motor.
Anyway I saw the whole dog/truck sound thing as an animal thing and nothing else. Now, lately, I’m rethinking that.
The dog’s reactions are clear; each vehicle gets classified as enemy, benign or friend strictly by that sound. In small pueblos like this one people
are identified by their trucks or cars --- if you are looking for Juan Carlos you go by his house and if you don’t see his car or truck, you strike
out, cruise the village till you find it/him.
Twenty years watching all this happen just meters from my little outside-inside lets me know the comings and goings of the people and their vehicles
by the car/truck or by its sound. So now, like the dogs, I smile when I hear Octavio’s quad go by, swear like a sailor when I hear Raymen’s red truck
full of big water jugs, cringe when I hear the big beater Suburban of Gregorio who owes me 800 pesos. The sound now moves me this way or that
emotionally but I rarely bark. Es La Vida. ¿La vida perro?
My Baja home living room (great room?) is my outdoor patio. No place in this little Mexican house to enjoy indoors unless you need to use the
facility, cook or sleep. So all the things that come close to the patio loom large to me and mine and that’s just how we like it. We can see and hear
all the comings and goings of the people, vehicles, animals and more without moving a muscle.
As soon as we settled in here almost 2 decades ago, we acquired walk-on beach dogs. We noticed they went nuts when pickups with dogs in them came
roaring down the dirt streets near our gate. From the very first encounter it was clear that the vehicle would get all the loud spirited barks even
when the offending other dogs were not in the vehicle. Behind a few cold Pacificos I made a plan to borrow some newcomer’s pickup, put my dogs in the
back, cruise the whole village causing canine mayhem --- what a great gag because from that day forward the owner of the truck would be singled out
solely by the sound of his muffler/motor.
Anyway I saw the whole dog/truck sound thing as an animal thing and nothing else. Now, lately, I’m rethinking that.
The dog’s reactions are clear; each vehicle gets classified as enemy, benign or friend strictly by that sound. In small pueblos like this one people
are identified by their trucks or cars --- if you are looking for Juan Carlos you go by his house and if you don’t see his car or truck, you strike
out, cruise the village till you find it/him.
Twenty years watching all this happen just meters from my little outside-inside lets me know the comings and goings of the people and their vehicles
by the car/truck or by its sound. So now, like the dogs, I smile when I hear Octavio’s quad go by, swear like a sailor when I hear Raymen’s red truck
full of big water jugs, cringe when I hear the big beater Suburban of Gregorio who owes me 800 pesos. The sound now moves me this way or that
emotionally but I rarely bark. Es La Vida. ¿La vida perro? 4x4abc - 3-27-2015 at 11:39 AM
Baja dogs are the best! But why do you cook indoors? And I prefer a leak behind the bush over that indoors porcelain (saves water, too).
On second thought - during hurricanes the outdoor kitchen gets a little messy.
AKgringo - 3-27-2015 at 11:50 AM
When I lived at Lake Tahoe in the mid 70s, I had a very intelligent Malamute mix that was a great judge of character, and had an excellent memory for
sounds. I lived on a quiet street, and when a vehicle turned on to it, he would be on alert. If it was a car that had been to the house before, he
would head to the door, and we could tell from his body language if it was a friend or just an acquaintance.
The best test of his sonic recall, was when a person showed up that had bonded with my dog on a one time, weekend visit two years earlier. The whole
body wag he did waiting for the knock on the door had me thinking that one of our regular visitors was arriving.AKgringo - 3-27-2015 at 11:54 AM
Harald, that must have been one hell of a salad you were making!
Sorry for adding on to this hijack.Udo - 3-27-2015 at 01:26 PM
I know this story is not fiction...because I've been there several times.
I soooo jealous of his outdoor living quarters!Martyman - 3-27-2015 at 04:14 PM
Something about the word "sensitive" makes me want to puke. Sensitive this!Osprey - 3-27-2015 at 04:19 PM
I am here to please. Give me a word you feel more comfortable and I'll edit the piece.
