Hounds of the Bouwerie

With each weekend, the Bouwerie House (which R + friends are renting for Sept. + Oct.) assumes a new layer of intrigue.

This weekend, the loping pair of Scottish Deerhounds, who reside in the stables and a unkempt yard behind the barn (which they resemble), were that layer.

Last weekend was attended by Hudson - genius with ball-finding and sweet but weekend-house-standard issue-white lab.

(I think it falls on the guests of the house to draw the lady of the house out. In so doing, we have now established a trust that eventuates in the revealing of the hounds.)

Scottish Deerhounds are not, on first impression, for the faint of heart. When the tall beast are barreling down on you, with the gate of an awkward colt and the forward propulsion of a small vehicle on a downward slope, first instinct is to leap from the trajectory.

Amazingly though, they manage a full-stop inches from your being and, pressed in place against, you, the hounds (Gandolf and Gus) are as gentle as newborns in a land of unthreatening people.

As their profile describes:

He is a gentle and gentlemanly dog with elegant ways and polite affection. Quiet, loving, friendly and excellent with children. Very courageous and dignified, devoted and loyal, but they are not watch or guard dogs, for they just love everyone.

(Of their digestion: The Scottish Deerhound is prone to bloat.)

Not at Bouwerie this coming weekend (wedding) but anticpate introduction of new characters the next one.

C