THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, March 15, 1995 TAG: 9503150457
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Guy Friddell
LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines
A cousin in Raleigh once told me that she wasn't surprised at any amazing feat she hears about dogs.
We spend so much time talking to our dogs, she said, it's no wonder they pick up on anything we say.
As if to confirm her, here's a note from B. Lovitt of Virginia Beach, one of the finest teachers ever to walk the earth, about a black bilingual Labrador retriever, Mucho.
``A friend had just brought him up from Mexico,'' she writes, ``and wanted to show off Mucho's Spanish. (And her own!)
``She gave him a series of commands, all of which he followed perfectly. I congratulated her and then said, `Let me test that dog.'
``I repeated her commands but this time in French. Mucho turned on me that slightly quizzical but proudly understanding look that is characteristic of Labs - quizzical only a minute and then fully understanding.
``He followed perfectly my tone of voice and cadence - that being all he needed - that and his will to obey and take directions from any well-meaning human.
``Aren't they wonderful!''
Yes, they are, but consider this.
B. Lovit used to teach teenage girls at Norfolk Academy, and I'm sure that through skills honed in holding their attention, she can impart what she pleases to any sentient being.
Another note, on a postcard, concerns a rattlesnake of record-breaking size of which I wrote recently.
On a climb up Old Rag Mountain in the Blue Ridge, our party came upon a timber rattler stretching across a 6-foot-wide trail.
I estimated he measured 8 feet. Shortly after that column, a Virginia Beach reader chided me:
``It may have SEEMED to have been 8 foot; however, the record length for a timber rattlesnake is 74 inches.''
In closing the column, I wrote: ``I'm glad to hear what the record is - or was, for who knows what tomorrow will bring?''
Friends, tomorrow has arrived!
The postcard bears a sketch of a timber rattler of 7 feet 4 inches.
The snake, caught at the Devil's Kitchen in Virginia's Goshen Pass on May 28, 1964, weighed 48 pounds and was 88 inches long.
``This is the largest rattlesnake that we know of this side of the Mississippi River,'' it states.
The stuffed specimen is displayed seven days a week from daylight 'til dark at the Stonewall Gift House in Lexington.
``You see the snake with your own eyes and are welcome to measure it. To put it simple, if you have one larger, prove it,'' the card says.
Then the printed card concludes:
``While you are observing this say a prayer for peace and a greater America. Thanks for stopping by.''
Well, I will certainly subscribe to those sentiments.
And note that now we are only eight inches short of the snake I saw.
Thank you, Elmer Birdseye of Lexington, for sending that card. ILLUSTRATION: Color drawings of Labrador retriever and snake
by CNB