Barking Hound Village

It is a warm afternoon. Roughly 2 o'clock. The sun's rays play games with my skin. I try to find shade, but I have little luck. There is a small amount of shade near a fence but it is not enough to cover me, but since it is all I can get, I place my chair there any way. About twenty dogs run around me. Their barking is constant. This is an average day at my job at Barking Hound Village. I sit there thinking to myself looking at the Atlanta skyline that surrounds me. There is not much else to do that does not involve me overheating. The dogs play. I hear the splashing sounds they make as they wrestle in the pool. Some of them seem oblivious to the heat as they run around playing their own version of tag. One dog sticks his butt in the air as if to say come and get me. The chase is on. Pebbles go flying and other dogs start barking like the instigators of an upcoming fight. The dogs that seem to be in my same position with the sun find their own shadows to hide in in various spaces of the yard. Some are curled around the legs of my chair and others are trying to claim my lap as their own. More splashing in the background as one dog tries his hardest to get to the water that the others seem to be wrestling in. Another dog tries to claim the other pool running any and every dog that comes near away. When the dog is done protecting its domain, it plops in the water satisfied with its own splash as the water falls back on its body. A man and his dog walk by. Another distraction. The dogs, hot and cold, create a chorus at the passerby. The dogs that are still inside add their own lyrics wishing they were here. I pay them no mind in my little sliver of shade. Once the dog and its male counterpart are gone, the dogs go back to their original activities. The dog is back claiming its own pool, the water wrestling match continues, the dogs who want nothing to do with the heat emanating from the sun go back to their shade, and a new dog tries to take its place in my lap. I love it.