The rhino has busted through the shoddy makeshift fence separating the zoo with the entrance to the adjacent hotel lobby where I worked. It wasn’t very satisfying work but full of stress, endless rides on the elevator and sprawling stairwells. Before the rhinoceros charged through those double doors I managed to summon enough courage to pet him on the head and he became peaceful–we go back, rhino and me, you see.

I was just processing that dream from the night before while walking this evening to the späti for a couple sternis. That’s when I jumped out of my skin.

Just as I approached a few guys sitting on a window ledge at a dark spot on the street, my way was blocked by a huge dog. The thing was he was the color of a Weimarer, that pretty grey coat. In the darkness, he blended in perfectly with the sidewalk until just before his huge muzzle was at my navel. So I was off in another world thinking about angry rhinos when I was snapped into reality with this huge grey dog that seemed to have just appeared out of nowhere.

I didn’t scream from the start, but I did a little spasm, I guess, because the owner said, “hi man, take easy, we’re cool.” The dog took me no mind, because city dogs are pretty mellow. But the guy didn’t get what was really my problem, so even as I was walking on, he kept on saying stuff like “really man, we’re peaceful folk! Relax, bro…”

On the way back, I opted for the other street side; not because of the dog, but because of the owners.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 28th, 2009 at 1:43 am and is filed under Learn something every day. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.