Saturday mail chorus

Hi neighbors. You have probably already heard about no first class mail delivery on Saturdays starting some time this summer. Wow. Is the newspaper first class mail? No Saturday newspaper?

Maybe there will be a Monday newspaper now instead? Maybe Saturday's newspaper won't get delivered until Monday. Some readers who live in the country have told me they get their newspapers a day late, so I suppose we will all be in the same boat soon.

I will miss Saturday mail delivery. It's just like Christmas every week!

I look forward to mail delivery on Saturdays. I never get to watch for the mailman with the dog during the week because I work. Saturdays we can watch the mailbox together. The dog can't go out into the front yard until after the mailman makes his deliveries. So the dog goes out to the back yard and keeps an eager lookout for the tale-tale signs that the mailman is in the neighborhood.

The first responses come in the form of barks, howls and the sound of fences being shaken. The mail carrier's progress through his route can be followed by ear. First the terriers' snarling barks; quickly followed and often joined by the retrievers' deeper and slower barks. The mailman's journey is well "bark"umented.

We have three Corgi families in our neighborhood. The mailman first encounters the threesome one block down.

I will try to describe the sound and the effects on a human psyche for those who have never heard a Corgi bark. The bark is deep, yet sharp. First, your inner ear is stretched to its capacity until there is actual physical pain. Then the brain locates the cause of the pain and starts shutting down nerve endings from the brain to the ears. So, immediately after the eye and ear popping initial reaction, you find yourself in a vacuum where you wait for the next avalanche of pain.

The threesome a block over sound a warning and we prepare ourselves for the next Corgi barking recital across the street. Right on cue the pair of Corgis across the street pick up the chase -- although it is only a verbal chase. I'm certain the mailman is grateful for that.

With all the dog activity we can't forget the squirrels that follow the action from the blimp-like overhead view afforded by the electrical wires. Chattering their disdain of the dogs and the mailman alike no doubt, the squirrels follow the one-man parade around the block.

Let's also give homage to the cats. Usually too busy doing whatever cats do, they take time out of their day and interrupt their naps to watch the mailman's steady and greatly announced progress. Windows fill with the inquiring faces of indoor cats, while the outdoor cats will walk to the end of their sidewalk or alley and stare intensely for a few minutes to make certain the dogs are barkers only, and that the mailman is not coming directly towards them; then sit down and wash their faces in total cat boredom.

Meanwhile the parade has progressed to the poodles' domain. This fine pair of dogs has a sophisticated bark that would sound more so if they didn't bound up and down and try to out-bark all the other dogs in the neighborhood.

My Corgi finally gets to join in the chorus with the toy MinPin next door. His baritone and her falsetto are almost the end of the performance for the mailman in our little neighborhood.

As he cuts through our back yard and down the alley, the last guard dog gets to send him on his way with a friendly, deep Husky bark.

Of course there are sometimes other dogs, cats and even possums who add their own songs to the fray as the Saturday mailman makes his deliveries.

No Saturday mail delivery? There goes the neighborhood entertainment!