The Independent Voice of Southern Methodist University Since 1915

The Daily Campus

The Daily Campus

The Independent Voice of Southern Methodist University Since 1915

The Daily Campus

The Independent Voice of Southern Methodist University Since 1915

The Daily Campus

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Brian Richardson, Contributor • March 28, 2024
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A salute to the underdog

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Teniente is a junior majoring in journalism.

Sometimes you see something in life that leaves a profound impression on you. It can either be something so awesome you don’t want to forget it, or something so horrifying you’d remember for the rest of your life.

Last Friday I saw a confrontation between two animals that resembled the battle of David and Goliath.

My girlfriend and I were walking our “Goliath” around the block. His name is Ringo. Not after the Beatle, after Johnny Ringo, the gunslinger.

Our Ringo is a two-year-old, 75-pound german shepherd. Ringo is a very sweet dog, but can be very protective and territorial. It is this part of his character that has caused him to become somewhat of a bully at dog parks.

I don’t really think it is his fault though. When he was younger, he used to be the one picked on by bigger dogs and now that he is a bigger dog he doesn’t let that happen. He makes sure that every dog in the park knows he is the boss.

Naturally, we don’t take him to dog parks very often anymore and just settle for walks around the neighborhood.

Sometimes Ringo pulls and tries to lead when we walk him. And when that happens we make him sit and wait until he calms down before we keep going.

At one point on Friday, we were stopped in front of a neighbor’s house, waiting for Ringo to calm down, when we heard a door open.

From the door we saw a very short, round and fat pug fly past its owner and out into the lawn. Suddenly, the tiny dog caught sight of Ringo and stopped mid stride.

Slowly, with its eyes locked on Ringo, it lowered its front paw as to balance itself.

Ringo’s eyes perked up as if he was looking at a brand new toy. My girlfriend and I looked at the owner, and started to tell her to grab her dog, but we were too late.

The pug started toward Ringo, not an ounce of fear in its eyes. A deep and threatening growl started in the pit of Ringo’s throat.

My girlfriend restrained Ringo as best she could, putting her legs on either side of him and holding his mouth shut. All the while we were telling him that it was okay and the pug was nice.

It didn’t matter. Ringo wanted to kill this Pug. I watched as the small, fat dog kept running towards us–almost as if in slow motion. It was pretty majestic looking for a pug. It was running all over the place. The pug was just crazy.

This pug was the most fearless animal I have ever seen. It wanted to smell Ringo’s butt, so it was going to smell his butt.

While all this is going on, Ringo is growling and fighting to get free to attack the other dog. Ringo is easily four times its size. Do you think that pug cared?

This strange and unexpected encounter with the world’s bravest Pug lasted about ten minutes. We could not deter the tiny dog from our group no matter what we did and its owner was too afraid of Ringo to pick up her own dog.

I have a lot of respect for that pug though. It’s like it had no regard for any other animal.

I finally managed to chase the tiny dog away, only to see it charge back at us to try and smell Ringo’s butt once more. Nothing could stop this pug.

We should all try to be like this pug and not allow ourselves to be intimidated by people or things that seem much bigger than ourselves. When times get rough just remember: pug don’t care — pug don’t give a crap.

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