Trixi Beck - Afternoon Coffee

Trixi Beck - photo by Nigel A JAMES

A Tale of Four Tails

Babies bring changes. This everyone knows. And it’s as true in Vienna as everywhere else. But, the powerful combination of child plus dog has the untamed force of reform that can turn even the slowest of backwater lives into a torrent of mainstream power and speed that carries all in its wake on its journey to the unknown shores of the future!

The dog was meant to be a companion and good influence for baby Vicky. Trixi and her husband firmly believed that pets were the best thing that could happen to kids, and this is undoubtedly true; they weren’t barking up the wrong tree. But things rarely turn out the way they are planned, and the dog – a golden retriever – became, instead, the source of a brand new direction.

The obvious happened. Walks in the cold freezing mornings of winter, visits to the vets, and all associated costs, etc. But, it was the kennel club that made the big difference. Dogs need training, and the club is the only place to go – and where there are dogs there are people – and the people at the club were all just as different as the dogs they had with them – that is, to say, except for one little thing.

Both, dogs and people are very social animals, and Trixi found she was enjoying the club just as much as her dog was, there was just as much wagging of tongues as there was wagging of tails! And so it was, that after some time, she, too, became a trainer and is now very busy helping others to shape the habits of their 4 legged friends and companions.

But, dogs are individuals, and many reflect the ways and the moods of their owners. But there is one place that Trixi can’t take her dogs to, and that is the conventions in London that she regularly goes to. She is an ardent fan of Buffy and Angel, a TV soap of yesteryear, and for her, and many others too, this show lives on in the fun of the meetings that they go to. But what about her little girl, Vicki?

She has now become a budding 12 year old and does well at school; and, maybe the dogs did make a difference. With canine company, one does learn respect. Pets, just like people, do let others know when they don’t want disturbing, and people with dogs, are, on the whole, extremely considerate. But, who knows? Maybe it’s the right kind of people who attract the right kind of dog, and now in Trixi’s household there are two beautiful dogs, a border collie called Cleo, and an Australian shepherd which answers to Sweeny. And these are two happy friends; their life is no dogs’ life! And, I secretly wonder, too, who, in reality is really wagging whose tail?

nj 2010