TRUST YOUR DOG (#2): Where we left off, there were two problems with meeting Cathy. One was the no photo, and that wouldn’t have been a problem, except I lived in St. Petersburg Beach and she lived in Ft. Myers. I really didn’t want to drive 125 miles to meet someone that couldn’t send me a photo.
Cathy got with another artist in the co-op who knew her way around computers, and they emailed a photo the night before I going to drive to Ft. Myers. Honestly, I was so interested by then, I would have gone without seeing a photo.
I called Cathy when I was getting close, and she met me in the parking lot of her condo building. She has been talking to an older couple and they were walking away as I pulled up. I could hear the lady saying to her husband, “I wanted to wait to see what he looks like!”
After we introduced ourselves, and Cathy was somewhat convinced I wasn’t an ax murder, she invited me in. Not as reckless as it seemed, she had a guard dog. Maddie was part pit bull bull and black lab. Cathy explained, Maddie didn’t like men, “I think her former owner smoked, drank a lot of beer, and left her chained to a tree. She’ll growl at you, but she won’t bite.”
As soon as we opened the door, Maddie was there. I extended a hand, palm down so she could sniff it. Maddie just licked my hand and we were friends. Cathy said that had never happened before. When Cathy told her Mother, Mom said, “You dog obviously has better sense when it come to men than you do. Trust her.”