A meeting with NUIGÕs best-known ambassador

There’s a small ginger-coloured dog which has arrived in the grounds of NUI Galway and tends to take up residence for the day outside the Millennium Arts Building where me meets and greets all arrivals . . . and has become known as ‘the NUIG dog’.

This fellow looks like some sort breed of Pekinese – which is not to cast any aspersions on his lineage. I do apologise if I have offended the owner who, no doubt, lives in the area, but can I say how much enjoyment and companionship he has provided for literally hundreds of people.

He tends to bark incessantly betimes, but I have discovered that the bark is an indicator of his joy at making human acquaintance, he is shouting out a greeting, and behind the bark lives an indefatigable ambassador of goodwill.

If the audience peters outside of the Millennium Building, he will wander to the entrance of the Hardiman Library building, or move on to one of the bus stops – a sure-fire gathering place for people who will stroke him, ask him how the studies are coming along, and perhaps speak of the particularly harsh frosts of this Winter.

In return he will wag his tail, look at you straight in the eye – a quality not always found in humans – occasionally bark his assent to something such as a remark about the weather, and then, not wishing to give offence, will move down the line to the next interlocutor.

As with all dogs, he seems to ask for little in return. You see this is one of the charming things about dogs . . . unlike cats, I think they have a essentially trusting nature. I have always believed that a cat would steal your dinner, but a dog would possibly lie down beside it and leave it untouched.

One of the great British comedians made a point somewhat like this on one occasion. He dealt with the concept of ‘the guide dog’ and how it worked because of the demeanour of the animal . . . and then said how ludicrous it would be to expect to see ‘a guide cat’. And if you did, he would be half way up the curtains!

It may be prejudice on my part, but I always have had the impression that a dog might sleep soundly and snoringly in the sun, but a cat always seems to have at least one eye partially open at all times.

For more, read this week's Galway City Tribune.