Woman and man and the two perspectives

#23 Aguadulce

You won't believe it, but she did it again. Twice even. Back to back. I told you about Icke's cleaning spree. With a 0.5-liter bottle of water against all the dog markings of Aguadulce, Almeria, and Andalusia in general. Yes! It was around 11 p.m., I was about to go to bed and undressed when Icke started getting dressed. I mean, Icke is always good for a surprise - and by always I mean always. She often acts differently than you would expect and very often she does the exact opposite. When she grabbed an empty 8-liter plastic bottle and turned on the tap in the bathroom with a grim look on her face, I had a bad feeling...

"Icke," I said in a calm, wave-smoothing tone, "Sweetheart, you're not going to clean outside now, just before midnight, are you?" It was phrased as a question, although I already knew the answer. She stood at the door in her parka, raised her hand with a determined expression on her face, and pointed with her index finger, indicating that every word from me would be meaningless.

I let her go. Our three dogs stood next to me, and we looked at each other in disbelief. I shrugged for the four of us.

We went to sleep. At some point, I heard the key in the door and shortly after the sound of running water in the bathroom. Another 8 liters. Another round. I must have fallen asleep to the sound of the water. I didn't ask Icke the next morning how many cans of water she had distributed on Aguadulce's streets in the middle of the night, but when we set off for our morning walk with our pack after breakfast, I had to realize that Berry and Pipo, our two boys, ran by their usual spots without even lifting their heads to sniff. And it remained that way until we reached the beach. I was amazed! It couldn't be true!

Icke could have silently enjoyed her triumph, but that's not in her nature - and she's certainly not the only woman like that. She took it a step further. "What do you think, in the future we'll always take a full water bottle with us on our walks and clean up everything Berry and Pipo mark." It was also phrased as a question, a question that categorically excluded any answer.

That was a strong move! As a man, I immediately felt that I couldn't leave my buddies to their fate. I urged Icke to put herself in Berry or Pipo's shoes for a moment. They walk here on historically significant trails, smell the scents of perhaps hundreds of fellow dogs from past decades. Where in Germany you might still catch a whiff of Waldis and Bastis from the previous evening, here in your mind, the elixir of countless generations explodes with a single sniff. And in the feeling of being able to add a new, shiny, perhaps crowning drop to this colossal olfactory artwork, you elegantly raise your leg with all the elegance you can muster. Fulfillment comes in the moment when you see the tree bark greedily absorb your gift, almost as if it had been waiting for it, longing for the fulfillment of its greatest desire.

And then your mistress comes along with the bottle and whoosh, everything's gone.

What must that feel like? Only men can be open to such fundamental questions of life. In any case, no water bottle comes near us anymore. We have also made strategic couple decisions. Icke now walks Emmi on a leash, I walk Pipo and Berry. We just feel safer that way. The perspective of women and men is sometimes not the same - to put it mildly.