Chasing Flies and Laughing Dogs

I rarely need a fly swatter in the summer because my dog, Blanco, will relentlessly pursue any fly that dares to invade our house, corner it and fight the unlucky insect to its inevitable death. What can I say? He’s part terrier and it saves me time. I just have to sweep up the remains. I’m even guilty of sicing my dog on any suicidal flies that I see first. All I have to do is point and go “BZZZZZ” and he’s on the hunt. (Writing can be very lonely so I have to stop and entertain myself somehow from time to time.)

My other dog, Okami, usually watches this spectacle without emotion. Today, however, was different. While chasing a buzzing kamikaze, Blanco ran underneath my desk and banged his head on the keyboard tray, jarring it and startling us both. I stopped typing and Blanco stopped stalking. Then came the victory buzz of the fly that got away from my entomologic hell hound. Blanco hung his tail down in defeat.

The most amusing thing to me, however, was Okami’s reaction to this slapstick scenario. Watching from her bed beside my desk, she was wearing a canine grin from one prick ear to the other, her tail wagging furiously. Now Okami is a quiet, shy, serious-natured dog that is not given to much fast and furious tail wagging. Even when she’s getting her favorite food or treat, it’s more of a slow and steady sway.

So please forgive me for my anthropomorphic tendencies (occupational hazard) but I do believe Okami thought the sight of her brother being outwitted by a fly and banging his head in the process was pretty dog-gone funny. And poor Blanco just looked embarrassed by it all. Which raises a couple questions in my mind: Do canines have a sense of comedy?Do other people use their dog as a green solution for household pests? – Deborah Parkhill Mullis

This essay was included in the 2009 launch of South Charlotte Weekly's "Animal House" section on Friday, July 31, 2009.