SOMETIME towards the end of March...
It's been just over a week now since I landed in Brooklyn to start my adventure towards establishing a career and for the most part things have been good. The weather has been amazing (for New Yorkers), if not hand-numbing cold in the mornings as well as the evenings. I've really taken to enjoying the brisk air though, as if this was my complimentary weather pattern. I know that in Texas, I could be wearing shorts and flip-flops right now, but it's kind of nice to actually have early Spring weather, IN Spring. I like wearing jeans and boots out daily, walking, and silently observing all the sites, smells and sounds that have crossed my senses. I've even had a few appointments to look at apartments for April. One, down in the PLG (Prospect Lefferts Garden) area of Brooklyn for $620 a month and one down in Prospect Heights near Atlantic Avenue. Both places seemed ideal, but one was nicer than the other, but $130 dollars more. The one I wanted fell through and the one that was offered to me, I turned down. I'm going to go out on a limb and give myself a reasonable grace period to be picky. If this is going to the place I lay my head at night and "relax," then I feel as if I owe it to myself. So I'm still looking for that special place here in Brooklyn. I've also gotten one job offer to work on a film as a camera operator, but this film doesn't start shooting till May and will be a really low budget film (for New York standards). Still grinding. Still sorting it all out. I rest assured in the fact that the right job and living situation will come around when it's ready too. In the meantime, Kari and her sister Laura have been too kind to let me borrow some of their space.
In return, I've started cooking for them (I made Veggie/Tofu Enchiladas and breakfast tacos) and from time to time play some of my records, which I'm happy to say I've been reunited with up here.
Kari has had off from work since Monday and we've been spending a lot of time together. We've gone out a few times as her friend Grace is visiting currently and has come out with us once or twice now, but for the most part, we're trying to save money. Kari's been really tired during the day and so this just leaves me to sit in the living room with a record on, sending my digital essence out over the internet, while I entertain an audience of Morton (Laura's dog) and little Leonidas (Kari's dog) for the afternoon. The other day, the internet got disconnected (uh-oh) and the cable was turned off as well. So for 48 hours we've been left to entertain ourselves without going out or spending money. Sometimes we'll watch a movie. The other day we went exploring, walking the dogs is a great way to kill time and It's necessary.
So this morning, I got up around 8:45 and this was the image emblazoned in front of me.
The dogs are usually up before everyone and ready to explode with canine excrement, so they have a new look in their eyes. It's part desire, part pain. They basically need you to take them 19 floors down to the ground and walk them. And so I do, like I have for the last ten days or so. Kari is usually still asleep, so I take the initiative to walk them and when I have, it's been quite a pleasure lately going to Brooklyn Bridge park in Dumbo which sits beautifully right across the East River from Manhattan. The views are picturesque. 
The Manhattan bridge runs right over head and often all sound is blanketed out by the passing subway trains overhead. THe dogs love it there. They get a little sea, a little sand, a little rock, Tons of grass, tons of people walking around, walking dogs and tucked away near the entrance closest to Kari's apartment is a decent sized dog run with that soft bark-like material down everywhere. When I take Morton and Leon in there and release them they go crazy and just run back and forth for like 20 minutes until they're gasping for breath, but even then I still tease them with a stick or something I'll find and have them go fetch. Of course, they don't really play fetch in the traditional sense. It's more like I throw the stick, they run after it (if they can see it) and then start chewing on it. Sometimes they bring it back, but they seem happier having me chase them for it than just submitting and giving it back. Which is fine.So Today, two things happened. There was an incident at the dog park and the creative spark for this blog came about. (Dog Park is 1st picture above.) Before taking the dogs into the run, I noticed there was another dog in there playing fetch with his owner. Everything seemed peaceful. He came to the fence along the park path to exchange scents with Leon and Morton. I'm not sure if noticed that it was a Pit Bull before or after this visit, but he was colored like the bark beneath his feet was. So I casually made my way with the dogs to the far entrance, (which is easier to enter) and began to enter. I thought maybe this guy would pack up and leave as it's what I normally do when other dogs want to come in and I've been there a tick. Not the case. So then I thought about how Leon and Morton had been playing nicely with three dogs yesterday evening in the same park without incident and was like, fuck it. It's fine. I got them through the first gate which is usually where I take them off the leash before letting them run excitedly through the second gate, but for some reason, they dragged me through the second gate on their leashes and stopped them to close it behind me. I then proceeded to take Morton off his leash and he ran the distance of the run one time as I turned my attention to Leon who was still desperately trying to get off his leash. I unhooked Leon and both he and Morton approached the Pit Bull only meters away. I approached the owner who I said "hi" to before I noticed Leon and Morton getting too close for comfort to this pit bull pariah. Before I knew it, Morton and this Pit Bull had started growling at each other and the proceeded fighting. Morton was tackled and the other dog had locked his jaw across Morton's face and neck. The other owner had managed to sandwich the Pit between his legs as I tried to separate the two dogs, but his grasp was too strong. I was shouting at him to do something as we both stood there, dogs in our hands trying to break it up when things got really intense. The trains overhead began to cross the bridge and the ambient noise grew as intense as the doggy drama unfolding in front of me. I'd never been in/near a dog fight before. I wasn't sure what to do. I just remember the look on Morton's face as the other dog was pulling his face to the side, Morton's was turning his head. He was in pain. As the sound from the trains overhead dissipated with their passing, a new noise rose to fill it's place. It was the painful moaning of Morton and the vicious growling of the offending dog. He STILL had not let go. The other guy was starting to hit the dog in the head and the body as he was still sandwiched between his legs. It wasn't working. Finally, they seemed to separate. I couldn't be sure because I had taken a step back, dislocated my ankle, and fallen on the ground. My ankle dislocates from time to time as the ligament that holds it in place has been infinitely stretched. Here's a brief history:
Jumping on Trampoline, a.k.a. - the beginning (Fractured bone, flew into a fence, limped home in tears. told everyone I was attacked by shark, graduated in infamy. I was 17)
Jumping off the roof of a car onto the asphalt of a gas station parking lot while inebriated the night before I was to go to Hawaii (Break 3?)
Stepped off the Side walk outside Opal Divine's Penn Field in Austin, TX (uneven ground role)
Playing Basketball (Bounced off metal goal post while performing Manu Ginoboli speed layup) Cut chin wide open.
On a water rafting ride at Schliterbahn, smacked ankle against stone wall of chute (rotated left in a tube 60 meters before a chute drop)
Trying out a Pogo Stick at ME television (dislocated, admittedly stupid)
Walking through my bedroom (stepped on shoe)
Opal Divine's (ankle slip-rolled behind the bar on a wet surface)
Brooklyn Bridge Park Dog Park (dog fight)
AND these are the ones I can remember. There were a few in there that are too painful to recollect.
So there I was. cringing around my dislocated ankle while on my back. If I laid back and looked towards the gate entrance, I could see Morton, bloodied and in retreat. I sat up and looked back towards the Pit Bull which the owner was on top of, still trying to wrangle. I attempted to ignore the situation for a moment to tend to my ankle, which as I looked up, the train passing once again on the tracks above me, was hanging, dislocated in front of my face. I was trying to relocate it while the sounds of yet another passing train permeated the air. "Why did I wear these Cole Haan leather shoes," I thought. "They offer literally no ankle support whatsoever." Before I could start to think about the karmic implications of wearing stolen shoes that my buddy snagged while temping at a high end shoes store, I noticed that Leonidas had started to attack the Pit Bull. Leonidas and Morton are brothers. Not blood brothers, but their lives revolve around each other and they've developed bonds as strong as the sisters who own them. Leonidas is usually the dog I think of when I have to think about which one is more likely to get into a scrap. I didn't have time to think whether or not I needed to try and pound my ankle back into place with my fist, hoping the quick jolt would relocate it, OR if I had to pull the entire foot down, away from the leg and move the entire foot over so that it was properly realigned for release. The problem was that neither was working.
Just then I see Kari (pictured above on a much happier day with Morton), who had split off for her morning coffee just ten minutes earlier, walk into the dog run from the far side, coffee in hand. At first she had her hand up, motioning as to inquire why Leonidas is "playing" with that other dog so intently. Damn train noise. I couldn't hear a thing. All I could yell, was for her to get Leonidas. "Get him," I motioned to her while yelling. Kari finally realized what was going on. Morton bloodied, me on my back and Leon ensnared in battle. She ran towards him and somehow managed to pry the other dog's jaws off of Leon. Apparently he had made a similar bite into Leon. I finally popped my ankle back into place. Sweet relief. The other dog was being pulled away violently by what we would later find out is NOT the dog's owner and I, newly on two feet, limped over towards Morton, who a nice park worker had attached his leash to and pulled out of the park. Kari managed to get Leon out as well as the other guy was basically STILL trying to calm down the pit bull.
The park workers working on the outer dog fence assured me that the other dog was to blame and that reassured me to some extent. I was quick to fault myself for not assigning the normal stereotype that comes with a pit bull and letting the dogs roam free to play. After today, my opinion about the genetic inclinations of pit bulls was greatly swayed to not only believe the hype, but beware of it. I will forever be changed.
