When A Barking Dog Really Bites
by John Weckerle
This has been one of those weeks – one minor catastrophe after another, each lending a unique flavor to the next. We’ll spare the details on most, but by way of warning our readers and possibly protecting them from physical harm, we’ll share a cautionary tale.
As my wife pulled into the Presbyterian Urgent Care lot last Tuesday, the brakes on her van made a terrible noise. As it turned out, she ended up riding shotgun on a transport to Presbyterian Hospital, so we had to pick the car up Wednesday. Not wanting to drive it far without knowing what was wrong, we took it to Brake Masters on San Mateo Blvd. in Albuquerque and, given that it was going to take a little time, we popped over to Jackalope to look around. We were, as always, very aware of how the Jackalope franchise has risen above its humble beginnings, but it’s always disappointing to see a source of reasonably-priced merchandise become gentrified.
As part of the gentrification, Jackalope is carrying a number of uncomfortable but expensive ($800 range) rustic wooden benches that appear to be made out of a single piece (except for the legs) of juniper or cedar or some other extravagantly shaped wood. One of them was really uncomfortable, at least for Lucy; when she sat down on it, one of the legs went right out from under it, throwing her to the ground. She’s fine, apart from the bruises, and the folks at Jackalope were very nice, very apologetic, and very attentive. They informed us that the furniture was made by a company named Barking Dog.
I took a close look at the leg in question (the one that came off the bench, as opposed to the one that got bruised), and was appalled to find that the leg was fastened on by three nails and some glue, apparently using the old “cut the head off the nail and bang the two pieces of wood together until they’re flush” technique – useful in some cases, but as anybody who’s ever picked up a hammer and a nail can tell you, not appropriate for attaching legs to something on which people are going to be sitting. In our opinion, there is no excuse for workmanship of this kind at any price, much less the price on the stickers we saw, and we consider this company’s furniture to be flat-out dangerous. To say the least, we consider Barking Dog to be a “warn off” – although, frankly, I’m not sure anyone who actually sits on one of their benches would buy one, even if it didn’t fly to pieces immediately.
One Response “When A Barking Dog Really Bites”
There’s an joke, which I can’t go in detail regarding, but the punchline is, “That dog will bite you!”
Sorry about the accident. Poor Lucy has had her share and then some lately.
Take care