No Dogs Allowed

No Dogs Allowed

Fred, a newcomer to town is walking his dog early on his first Saturday morning there, when he notices something about the street signs. He informs his dog about what he has seen. He often talks to her, as he lives alone, and she is a good listener.

 “Martha Berger, Leonard Berger, Leonard Berger, Stephen Berger, and Pearl Berger. What do you think girl? The Bergers must be a very important family in town.”

The two of them walked on, with Frank looking for a park where he can let his dog free to run. He is confident that she will not run away on him.  She never has before. After a few miles of searching, he finally sees a park, not surprisingly called “Berger Park”. What does surprise him is that there is a big sign at the entrance reading in all capital letters: ‘ABSOLUTELY NO DOGS ALLOWED IN THE PARK: VIOLATORS WILL BE SEVERELY PUNISHED.’ While he was tempted to ignore those instructions, as there was no one around to witness his violation of this nasty policy, he thought it best to do what it said.

When the two of them had returned to their cottage-like house on the edge of town, he told Samantha, his dog, that he was thinking about putting up a sign on his front lawn graced by the words ABSOLUTELY NO HUMANS ALLOWED IN THE FRONT LAWN: VIOLATORS WILL BE SEVERELY PUNISHED. Samantha just wagged her tail in response, as if she knew what the hypothetical sign was to say.

Later that same day Fred and Samantha walked to and on main street to get to the pet food store. On the way he noticed that there were several streets upon which dog-owners were not permitted to walk their dogs. 

He was hoping to get one of Samantha’s favourite foods at the pet food store as they were running out. He would be in for a shock. Written on a fairly large sign on the door of the pet food store were the words in capital letters NO DOGS ALLOWED. While he was tempted to walk in anyway with Samantha, he knew that he would have to turn around, walk her home, and abandon her in their house, something he never liked to do. Neither did she.

He would be disappointed when he entered the pet food store. While there were many items that were available for cats, parrots, rabbits, hamsters and fish, there was very little available to dogs. When he spoke to the employee there about their ordering Samantha’s favourite food, he was turned down, not really to his surprise. 

He wondered what it was about this town that was so against dogs. He brought to his mind that he had not seen another dog in his one week stay so far in what he was now calling Bergerville. As that thought came to mind, he was approaching the town’s government centre, which was at the ground floor of the gigantic (for a small town) Berger Building. 

He opened the door, half expecting to see a ‘No Dogs Allowed’, but did not see it. What he did see was that the mayor and one of the counsellors were Bergers. He decided that it would be best for him to talk to a non-Berger, one who might be a little more flexible and open-minded than the ruling family. So he knocked on the door of the first non-Berger name he saw.

He was right to do so. He asked the man about the sign in the park, what seemed to him to be the anti-dog policy of the pet food store, and what also seemed to him to be a lack of dogs in town. He got a straight-forward answer. The man told him that Ralph, the current Berger-in-Chief (his words), had been attacked by an unleashed dog in the park when he was a boy. So when he inherited the chief power of the town, he instituted a severe pack of anti-dog policies in, which included that dogs could only run free in the backyard of their owner’s property if the fencing in the backyard was officially approved by the dog-fence officials. Many had not been met with such approval, and had to, within two weeks, increase the fencing to a greater height and greater general capacity to block dogs escaping or give up having a dog. Fortunately, Fred hadn’t received a visit yet from one of the ‘canine cops’ as he was beginning to think of them, but knew that he would have to check the backyard fence very carefully, and make changes if necessary, before the ‘bow-wow bouncer’ would come to visit and get a long look at his backyard.

Fred then put the big question to him. “Is there not something I could do to change dog policies around here?”

The reply came as no surprise. “I’m afraid it is pretty much impossible to change the ways and demands of the Bergers in town, particularly Ralph Berger. And people around here do not like it when newcomers in town want to change things.”

“I feel sorry now that I decided to live here in my retirement.” He then thanked the counsellor,  and walked out the door, feeling quite frustrated.

As Fred walked back home he decided that he would stay in town. He generally liked the non-Bergers, and certainly had the kind of house he had been looking forward to living upon his retirement. He would just have to adjust. He would order Samantha’s dogfood online, and maybe he would sneak into the park in the middle of some weekday, when it was unlikely that anyone would be there.

The Very Next Day

The morning of the very next day, he checked out the state of the fence of his backyard. He was glad to see that it looked both sturdy and high enough to prevent any escape. Then, that afternoon, he decided that he and Samantha could sneak into the park, and have a good time there without being detected. He had always been a rebel, never liking the idea that people could tell him what not to do. Fred had been something of a hippie in his youth.

           They walking into the park, and Fred unleashed Samantha to run to her canine heart’s delight. She took off to the wooded area.

           Then Fred saw that there was someone in the woods, what looked like a young man with an expensive-looking camera taking pictures. “Damn” he exclaimed with a louder voice than what he had intended. Now he was going to be in trouble.

           But that was not to be.  Approaching the young man was a large kind of wildcat, most likely a cougar. It was creeping toward him with clear intent, no doubt, of violence. It snarled and the young man turned around, and saw what was approaching him.

           But before the cougar got to the photographer, Samantha, a border collie with the spirit of the breed, attacked the cougar, causing the wild animal to turn and run. The young man bent down and patted Samantha on her back. He then stood up, and walked over to Fred and shook his hand and said:

 “Thanks, I am so glad you and your dog came into the park today, or I might have been cat food. My name is Bill. I am going to tell my father about this. He is Ralph Berger. I am going to tell him what happened, and tell him that this park should be open to dogs, as one saved my life. He plans to have me as his successor as mayor in a few years. I will tell him that such a change will help me get elected.”

And so it happened that the law changed concerning the park. It was a unanimous vote, which often happened with the mayor and counsellors in town. And gradually over the years leading to Bill Berger’s eventual election as mayor, the laws regarding dogs were made less oppressive. And Fred encountered more dog-walkers on the streets of the town, and could buy dogfood from the pet food store.