It's a dog's life.

When I go to Brighton's Farmers Market early on a Saturday morning I expect to have at least an hour of quite stimulating conversation and a few revelations while I eat my fried fish cutter (with pepper and shaddobenny) and drink my cappuccino. The stimulus comes naturally from the food but gets spiced up by my expanding group of bright people that I meet in Barbados: we are none of us intellectual duds, in fact very much the opposite. Revelations come because we know and see many things in our various lives and that comes out in conversation. But, we are humans and are often fairly clueless about many real world things. This includes the animal kingdom, and owning a pet does not change that. In the same way, many of us are clueless about raising children and having them does not alter that either.

Today I was enthralled by a conversation about the sexual habits of a male dog. Briefly, one of my blogger friends was lamenting what her Jack had been up to. Or was it up too? Jack had taken a fancy to a nice piece of household furniture, and somehow felt that with enough effort he could produce an offspring that would be the perfect blend of him and a sofa. I guess that at a distance a sofa, with its sleek long body and four legs, could look like a big dog, and size is no challenge in these matters. But from up close, the poor dog still did not know that it was not a female dog he was about to mount? Now, "Get off the chair, dog!" has a new take.

Well, though I have owned female dogs, I never had a male. I learned more about them this afternoon. See a blog that puts it all plainly for dog owners (Swank Pets Dog Blog), in a no-nonsense post entitled Understanding Your Dog’s Sex Life). In a few words, dogs are sex addicts and to quote the blog cited "If you have a male dog, I’m sure you’ve seen him running around the dog park trying to hump every thing and everybody!" Well, I don't; but I have. While a female dog gets on average a three week heat cycle only every six months, the "Jacks" of the dog world need to keep in training. I was even once a target of desire for a male dog when I visited a friend's house, and male dogs seem to love to target guests (males or females); and little dogs are sometimes very persistent with their overtures.

Now, I imagine that my friend chose her dog's name before she knew how inapt it could turn out to be. If this pooch was to have his way, so to speak, we could end up with new meanings for jack-in-the-box. We already know that a jack is used for lifting a heavy body a short distance: the picture shows one interesting interpretation of that lifting at work. We also know that "Jack" is a common nickname for John, and the connotations of that latter word could easily fit with my friend's pooch, or with any dog for that matter.

As my friend lived in England for a long time I wonder if she will rename her mutt Union Jack. Anyway, I am going to leave it there as I know one "jack" phrase that could really fit, and this is a family-friendly blog, so I will leave you to read the list (see link) at your leisure. So, I'm jacking it in.

Have a great weekend.