You know the funniest thing about friends? Sometimes they start out being the biggest losewad, sack of crap you’ve ever met before you realize you’re destined to be buddies. The case to prove my point? There’s a loud, smelly man who brings his dog, who humps everything, to the dog park on Wednesdays when Yadi and I go. This man and I are not best friends, although, he did give me a piece of cinnamon old people candy today. I ate it. No shame.

     No, not human friendship, this is another story about dogs. Dexter, the man’s dog, plays rough. I already said he’s a humper. He’s also a barker, a biter, a body slammer, and he peed on my backpack once. Then Yadi tried to pee on it too to reclaim it as ours. Chivalric, but not what I wanted.

     Any way so Dexter has been a project for LSM (Loud Smelly Man). LSM has scolded and brought water bottles to spray humping Dexter. Dexter is fairly respectable now. The first day we came, though, Dexter humped Yadi. Yadi just sat there and looked at me for help. LSM roared at Dexter and got him off. The second time we went, Dexter humped Yadi again, but I yelled to Yadi to run away and he did. The third time, Yadi got in Dexter’s face, I assume yelling, “No humping me!” Now they roughhouse and play all day. Dexter is Yadi’s best dog park friend.

     This foes to friends things happens to humans too, I know, minus the humping, I would think. My point, I guess, is don’t judge a person by first meeting. Give a girl three tries before deciding she is a bitch. Maybe her grandma died that week, and she’s not her normal self. Give a dude three chances before deciding he’s bad at his job and smells like cheese. Maybe the first time you meet him is his first day at work and his mom made him cheesy hash browns for breakfast. We all have days where we are not at our best (or 6 months-12 months if you are a rescue dog). It’s better to remind yourself of this when meeting someone new than lose out on a potential friend because you were too quick to judge, right?