I guess everyone picks up an odd skill or two during their life that never occured to them.  I know I have a few that I would have never predicted.  Today I used one acquired on my job, but not on my job.

In my job, it is necessary to become an immediate judge of dogs.  To most people, this sounds very simple.  It isn't.  A lot of people never pick this up and can't do the job.  They give up and quit.

Most dog owners, who do not own trained dogs, don't really know their own dog.  This is because the only dog they encounter on a daily basis is their own dog, therefore they have no clue how it behaves in regard to strangers.  I mean no clue.  Period.  (If you own dogs that are very well trained, that's another matter entirely.  This post does not refer to you).  I, on the other hand, have encountered literally hundreds of unfamiliar dogs in the last three years, thousands if you count Chihuahuas.

There are basically four kinds of dogs.
1.  Friendly.
2.  Unfriendly but gutless.  They run away and bark.
3.  Chickensh*t.  They only attack when your back is turned.
4.  Dangerous.
Okay, 5 kinds.  There's also the totally ape**** crazy dogs, turned into monsters by their owners.

People who succeed and stick with a job such as mine develop the knack of identifying which category a dog falls into within 5 seconds or less.

My dad has gone on a vacation again, so we were tasked with watering his tomato plants.  Yesterday my wife discovered a new dog had taken up residence at his house, a dog which didn't run away, so she didn't water the plants, because that was where it was lying.  So today I went over and checked it out.

I could tell right away he was not only friendly, but friendly and lonesome.  I don't know where he came from, and he wore only a flea collar.  He is huge.  He might be a Doberman mix, but I'm not sure with what.  Maybe a Lab.

Anyway, if my dad decides not to run him off, it looks like he's got another good dog.  He's already friendly with my dad's cowdog.

I don't do much dog blogging because it would mean referring to my job, which I tend to avoid when I'm not actually at work.  But I thought I would mention it, because this dog is a beautiful dog.  A little skinny, but beautiful.

UPDATE:  Just to clarify, I am not a mailman.  I am a meter reader.  I ran into a mailman once who started trying to lecture me on how to deal with dogs.  I nearly laughed in his face.  I simply interrupted him and asked, "How many back yards have you had to go into to deliver the mail?" and walked away.  He shut up pretty fast.  I sneer at mailmen.

hickory leaves bake
like deep cinnamon summer
--slow footsteps of dust

Auxiliary to the World has posted a couple of videos of The Wife Shootin' from this past Memorial Day.

Pedestrian Infidel comments on French Army sniper tactics.

I'm trying to think of a good caption for that photo but am coming up with nothing.

Shooter:  Still getting that strange distortion in the air.

Rest:  Sorry, it's the cheese.