For The Love Of PAWS

This section of the blog is, and I hope you guessed it from the tab name, solely about dogs. So fair warning if you’re an avid dog lover like myself (and if you aren’t, I somewhat feel sorry for you) get ready to melt over these pictures I took of dogs in London.

I know what you must be thinking, “So she went to London, and just took pictures of dogs?” And I mean yes; half of my camera roll was of dogs, but the other half was of important historical monuments in London too! I’ll have to admit though, maybe sometimes when I was supposed to be paying attention to my professor talking about something, I was snapping pictures of dogs walking past us, and then slightly tearing up because:

I don’t understand why dogs are so cute.

I missed my own dog.

Wait look at that Corgi OH MY GOODNESS!

Gosh I really miss my dog.

I just missed something crucial my teacher just said, “Psst Lauren what did Professor Nyland just say?”

As you couldn’t tell by now, I am a HUGE dog lover. A lot of people on the trip probably equally agreed with me on how cute these dogs were and supported me taking pictures of stranger's dogs. When found in a foreign country people tend to focus on interactions between locals and or their own interaction with the unfamiliar place around them. However, there was more behind just the picture. I was really focused on the interaction between dog and man, dog and dog, and dog and self. It is interesting, well to me at least to see that majority of the time an interaction with a dog was much better than an interaction between two people.

Credit: Bianca Santos

Credit: Bianca Santos

Off-Leash

Our professor asked us when we were walking in Hyde Park to pay attention to the interactions between people. Yeah...you already know I went outside the guidelines for that. What I realized was something deep, some might call it corny, but it stands true to my theory that dogs are in fact better than humans.

I watched people holding onto their loved one's hands tightly (like little children, or their significant other). Now I know that with children this makes more sense because children have a mind of their own sometimes and like to walk away from their parents. And yeah, I know holding your significant other's hand is a sign of affection but gosh, they aren’t going anywhere!

This is the short response that I ended up writing:

“I always like watching people and their connection that they have with their animals. It’s quite honestly a special bond. I was watching several people walk their dogs off leash. This is instilling a lot of trust...maybe sometimes a stronger trust then that they might have with humans. No matter where the dogs wandered to, they came back to their respectful owner once being called upon.”

Now why can’t that paranoid mother do that with her child, and why can’t that hopelessly deep in love teenager realize that her boyfriend is not going to wander off from her, and she can release his hand now because she is cutting off his circulation?

Probably because they don’t have any trust in the other person.

So just take a moment to think about it really quick, who do you trust more your dog or someone you know?

Blog By: Bianca Santos

Credit: Bianca Santos

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Hyde Park Heartthrob

Yeah, I thought the same thing too; how could a dog be so photogenic! We had just come from Buckingham Palace and now where taking a leisurely stroll through Hyde Park. Then this little cutie caught my eye. At first, he was off leash playing fetch with two construction worker guys as the owner talked to the both of them. I remember shaking my friend Lauren’s arm aggressively for her to look at this, to her response “That’s so cute, but keep walking.” Obviously, I didn’t listen, and we stood there for another five minutes as I took videos and pictures of him. You could tell this ball was his everything, he never left it behind, nor his owner for that matter. One second it was like “Okay where is my owner? Oh, wait there he is!” Then to “Where did he just through my ball? Oh, wait there it is!”

He looked like a Pitbull to me, but deep down I know he probably wasn’t full breed. What I did know however is that his owner and him had been companions for a while, he let him roam free in the park, and knew he would always return with that dirty blue soccer ball.

They two walked side by side down Main Street of Hyde Park, while Lauren and I walked side by side down Serpentine Road.

That’s when I turned to Lauren and said, “Look at them the best of friends.”

I’m not shedding a tear, are you?

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A Love Story

So, you know that song by Taylor Swift, yeah that’s all I think about when I look at this picture.

For starters Corgis are extremely cute, and I have a biased opinion since one of my good friends Lilly has one named Andy, and sometimes I take him out on walks. But this how I got this picture because I was trying to take it of the corgi to send to my friend Lilly, but I ended up getting an even better picture.

A first and last encounter. Would they ever meet again? Maybe their owners would go on a blind date together and fate would bring them together that way? Or hopefully they will come across each other again at the Garden Market in Tower Hamlets?

All I know is this love story would be better than Taylor Swifts song, sorry not a fan!