To be precise, because me and Kenzo talk Danish together, I call him "Skat", which is Danish for sweetheart. "Skat" also translates into "Treasure", or worse, into "Treasury" and quite some Danes must feel ambivalent to use the same word for their loved ones as well as the tax collector.
Not me. It was one of the first Danish words I learned. You have to start learning a language in the sweet-talking department, and although there were a lot of other words describing your affection better and more eloquently in Danish, I found only "Skat" was something I could pronounce without being made fun of. So "Skat" was the one that stuck.
I don't even notice myself how much I use it. Kenzo listens to both his name and to sweetheart. Which can get awkward like the other day, where my wife asked me to reach her something that lied on the table. I picked it up and reached out my hand, but she was distracted. I was too lazy to get up and take two steps towards her and tried instead to get her attention. "Sweetheart?". Kenzo got up from the corner and sat down in front of me on the moment my wife turned towards me. She didn't mentioned what I could guess she was thinking. Any discussion that could have followed I would have inevitably lost. You know what I mean.
But back to men and sweethearts.
Kenzo and me were re-attending an obedience class, but unfortunately we had gotten a new trainer for that particular class. I knew him from the SAR classes and defense classes although I never trained with him. He had long and wild blond hair and could have stepped right out of a Viking text book. Me, Kenzo, and another man with his dog quickly became his favorites. The rest were all women. I think he didn't liked at all there were that many women in class.
Especially Kenzo was his favorite. "He is great" he said, and told me how he liked Hovawarts. "Sturdy dogs, for sure" he mentioned. Because we took to this particular class before we were slightly better than the rest, and he loved using me and Kenzo as an example. "Stop!" he shouted. "You all have it wrong!". He yelled more then he talked. "Let's see how Kenzo does it!". He waived me towards him, and ordered me to set an example.
That's where I made my mistake.
I walked forward but was stopped by the end of the leash. Kenzo was sniffing someones butt and was occupied. "Sweetheart" I called, but still I was less interesting than the butt and decided to put some more feeling into it: "Sweeeetheart?".
It was like Thor himself roared with thunder. "Stop calling him sweetheart! He ain't a sweetheart for god's sake!". The trainer exploded in front of me and while steam was coming from his nose and ears, he reached for Kenzo's leash. "I will do it myself!", and he gave Kenzo the heel command.
Kenzo was confused about this new person on the other end of the leash, and although he performed the command, he was not heeling in exactly the same line as the trainer. Now the trainer was disappointed. Even Kenzo let him down. Annoyed he pulled the leash in an attempt to set him straight. Big mistake. I could see how Kenzo immediately was giving him the look. I rushed in to intervene, taking the leash out of the trainer's hand.
Walking back to the group it was my turn to make a mistake. I automatically called Kenzo for sweetheart again, and regretted it right away. It made the trainer look even more bad. The group had heard me and they giggled.
The trainer never spoke another word to me again. I tried to avoid the word sweetheart during class as much as possible for his sake. But I might have made some glitches.
No comments
Post a Comment