Ballard Street by Jerry Van Amerongen for January 14, 2020

No, Conrad, Scooter just plain don’t trust you.

Conrad is not very good at reading canine body language.

And please, every dog is NOT Scooter.

The dog (whatever his name is {^¿^} ) just wants to try your pipe when you’re not looking. Eeeew, dog slobber!

That’s not the look of fascination, that’s the why-aren’t-you-feeding-me look.

No, What’s His/Her Name finds you tasty. Make a move toward him/her and see.

I should think interesting would suffice.

I don’t think you’re fascinating…in fact I don’t think anything…..ZZZZZZZZZZZ

Ok, you guys can (sniffle) put down my life-time passion for cataloguing the people and dogs of Ballard County…

But Dennis is right…. they’re NOT all Scooter.

(Especially the people… )

Now, I don’t criticise those who can’t think of any of their names…

but really, many of them have distinctive personalities, and the diversity of characters in our neighborhood is one of the things we all love.

People seem to have no trouble naming the humans… whether they’ve been previous characters or not…. why not the dogs?

Months ago, at least, someone asked me for a list of the dogs already named by Jerry Van Amerongen.

I posted one, probably with strips to illustrate.

I saved the list, and I’ll post it below… but not any links to strips, and it’s waaay too late to spend an hour looking for some.

I’ll try to post a few in coming days.

But it doesn’t mean you have to memorise it, or always recognise them…. especially since the strips are black and white, so it’s hard to tell Rusty Boy or Ginger.

You can make something up.

It is extra nice if you remember that our beloved pal Scooter is a big, heavyset white dog.

Some people tell me they long for the “good old days” of Ballard Street…

Well, I gotta tell you… and others can attest… one thing that made it fun is that someone would name a character and/or start a story….

and those arriving later would stick to the same names and plot…

not change it to fit a different joke or remark.

That way we built a lasting tale… and a great community.

Ok, found it…. I said I thought I posted it a few months ago…. but it was apparently in 2017…

How time flies.

Some Ballard Street dogs…. a very non-comprehensive list:

Scooter, a big white dog who is very talented…

Rusty Boy… big and chestnut colored….

Scruffy and Scuffy are both small, light colored, and rather aggressive. I don’t know whether JVA actually meant for them to be the same dog.

Miss Millie High Maintenance (named by Jerry, not us!) is a rather spoiled, temperamental, white poodle that the male dogs all desire….

but it seems she only has eyes for Scooter.

Ginger is another spoiled female dog…. but she is sweet and talented…. and of course, ginger-colored.

Miss Emma is also sweet…. considered pretty by both humans and male dogs, in spite of being light brown and rather nondescript.

Buster and Toby are usually medium size, chunky, and brown….

Sparky a bit smaller and yellow, or sometimes bigger and white, but usually a bit of a troublemaker…. and an artist.

So you see…

Sometimes one strip will use a known name for a different dog…

and their ownership varies from day to day.

There are more… but memory fails….

Oh… there’s Godfrey, big grey, pointy and very friendly.

And High Chief… tan, very tall, fairly lean, and built for speed.

Before I go….

a very belated Happy Birthday to JP Steve

I know it was a week ago, and I’m sorry.

A little more on Cleo.

And that reminds me…

if anyone has been having trouble reading it….

the link to Cleo and Company on Sherpa has been repaired.

The forum is still ten years ago on this strip…

For about a week, Nighthawks was posting links there, to see the strips on an image hosting site, but now you can go to Sherpa….

then please join us on old Ballard St to comment, ie, for today, the Jan 14th 2010 strip.

You’d be more fascinating if you’d go get some pimento cheese and crackers.

Sweetheart does this with me. always watching what i’m doing.

Wow – not much happening at that house!

You’re smokin’.

{"They’re so cute when they think we’re interested…"}

A early anti-smoker look