The Smile Generator!

Yesterday we took Ray out for his usual walk and as we turned to head up our main street, we saw a man coming towards us with a small dog on a leash. We’ve seen this man before on a regular basis, and are fairly certain that he lives in an apartment building just up the road (may even be the Superintendent there). We have, however, never exchanged pleasantries as he is usually on the other side of the road to us when we see him.

The dog seemed to be getting a little anxious as we all got closer and, just as we crossed an entrance to a grass area, the man took his dog in there a few feet, and then turned to us. “Are you Mr. Chappell?” he asked. That question is usually asked with debatable motives so my response was a smile and “Is there a right answer to that question?” He returned a smile and said “Did you write a book about a dog?” I told him that yes I did and had he read it, to which replied “Yes….. it’s awesome!”.

He then looked at Ray. “Is that Ray?” he asked. Carol and I both confirmed that yes, he was indeed looking at Ray. He told his dog to stay, and had enough slack leash to walk over and offer his hand to Ray. He then proceeded to stroke him. Ray was particularly cooperative which, we learned a few moments later was due to the man having really good treats in his pocket. He asked if it was okay to give Ray a treat (which was fine with us).

Overall, I got the impression that meeting both me and Ray could well have been the highlight of his day! Who would have thought such an event would happen?

We did some shopping while we were out and, on our way back home, a woman was crossing in front of us when she suddenly turned to Ray and said “Hello sweetheart!” She then offered her hand and ended up patting him! She continued on her way with a smile on her face!

A few minutes later, another woman stopped with a “Hi Baby!” and proceeded to direct her attention to Ray. She too left with a big smile on her face!

Probably about 5 minutes later, a very tall young guy was coming towards us. He was obviously very happy and seemed to be focused on Ray. As we passed each other, he gave us the biggest smile with “What a beautiful dog!”

Finally, when we were a few minutes away from home, a car pulled up alongside us. It was one of the owners of Fantastico Pizza (Ray’s favorite place!).  We had a brief interaction but his attention was mainly on Ray… and Ray recognized him immediately and was probably wondering where the pepperoni slices were!

What an eventful walk. We have often observed that Ray brings a smile to so many faces, but yesterday was different due to the physical contacts that were made… all of which he handled perfectly! 🙂

We have some pics of Ray taken yesterday, so I am hoping that tomorrow’s Post will show the reasons why our Ray is a smiles generator!

 

 

32 thoughts on “The Smile Generator!”

  3. When I go for walks in our local park, I am always happy when I can stop and make friends with a dog or two. I can almost never tell you what the human even looked like, but I can describe the dog and his//her personality to a T. Generally, I think I like dogs better than people. Hugs for Ray for brightening many lives!

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      • Great post, and it is so true! You ask why? I am no expert, but I think it is that dogs are pure. They aren’t out to take your wallet, they don’t care if you liked Trump or Clinton, they don’t care what, if any, religion you follow, they just like kindness … and pats. I did have a friend once, however, who had a doberman that absolutely did not like black people. He was friendly to everyone, but if a black person came around he would growl and snap. Go figure. Thanks for the link … 🙂

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    • Hi Amy. Yes it was. Bringing smiles to peoples faces is a regular event now, but having strangers approach him and touch him is something that Ray has typically been very cautious about. Not so on this walk! 🙂

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  7. Ray is such a charmer! Very cool at all the smiles he generated.
    I am sure that you were smiling to. Must have been nice to hear that one gentleman say how “Awesome” your book was. He has good taste apparently. 🙂
    Looking forward to the pictures tomorrow.

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  9. Dogs do so much in the way of setting up social connections for us. Dog people stop to chat with each other, smile at each other, share treats, tell canine stories. The off-leash areas are happening places! Since we have been walking without our Rudy (who passed away a year ago) we have noticed a big difference.

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    • He might just do that… although his track record of sharing is rather less than impressive! He’s welcome to the celeb status though as I’m a “work behind the scenes” kind of person wherever possible! 🙂

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