Two

Two is better than one.

There is a time to wander.

And then there is a time when the wind stops blowing,

we fall to the ground and

began to grow.

Taiwan’s Valleys of Kings

As soon as my spinning wheel of work spat me out sideways, I grabbed my bags and lenses and ran away, by plane to the furthest reaches of the Earth where no mobile phone, marking or email could reach me.

Recently, my love for the butterflies had gone with the hopping Harlequins, hopping and turning up every leaf towards Heaven, perhaps never to be seen again, as the great outdoors turned into yet another building, yet another expressway, yet another carpark for heavy vehicles.  Increasingly, all places seem to feel like yet another cubicle, with work waiting to be done.

Thanks to Da Chang and Ah Quan, our newfound friends in Taiwan, we left the never-ending construction behind and fled to the mountains.

台灣玄灰蝶-(台灣黑燕蝶)-Tongeia-hainani

Our first destination was Gu Guan, a picturesque mountain with vegetation on either side of the wide mountain road, peppered with little Lycaenidae, with the occasional larger butterfly zooming over our heads down the mountainsides.

密點玄灰蝶-(霧社黑燕蝶)Tongeia-filicaudis-mushanus

I enjoyed the breeze… and the lack of the sound of moving heavy vehicles gone to dig more holes in the ground, no depressing city skylines, and walked down the mountain roads, every corner a possibility for further exploration, whilst our friends posed with Hello Kitties on the ground.

The Taiwanese butterfly shooters place heavy bets when they pick up their gear and go on a butterfly photography road trip.  They travel 6 or 7 hours to reach a destination to face the possibility of fog, rain and other weathery impediments.  For us, we only face the possibility of facing a sign that says “Do not enter.  Construction in progress.” and the entire butterfly site cut out it seems with a giant cake knife leaving nothing but the orange mud flour of its insides gaping at the sky.

Tongeia-hainani-2

The better part of the first day was invested in Gu Guan, after which we began our long journey to La La Shan, Hua Lien.

Euploea-tulliolus-koxinga

Euploea-sylvester-swinhoei-(Double-Branded-Blue-Crow)

Euploea-mulciber-barsine-(Striped-Blue-Crow)

We were at La La Shan in the hopes of spotting a Lycaenid which looked very similar to the Banded Royal in Singapore, the location of which however, had been replaced by a very important looking expressway.

拉拉山鑽灰蝶-(拉拉山三尾小灰蝶)-Horaga-rarasana-Sonan

We woke up early, and made the hour long drive to the gate of the Mountain, which opened at 7 sharp.  From 7a.m. we marched up the mountain 4 km to reach near the peak and waited beside a ubiquitous small tree for our winged friends to appear.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And they did appear, putting up a fantastic aerial display, which I think would have been just like that at our National Day, which I never saw in my entire lifetime, as I never did own a Hello Kitty or Despicable Me Minion MacDonald’s toy, because queueing for days was required.

青斑蝶 Parantica sita niphonica (Chestnut Tiger)

In my diseased, sleep-deprived state, steeped in the cancer of consumerism, I failed to recognise how important that moment was, while munching on a furry peach, watching my husband run around excitedly.  I might never see another Banded Royal again.  And here I was, not the least bit excited about a butterfly some Taiwanese shooters have never laid eyes on.

青斑蝶 Parantica sita niphonica (Chestnut Tiger) (2)

I must have left, within me, some small fire, yet to be extinguished, in my frustration and hopelessness, that I put down my peach and suspended myself from thinking about shopping, to pick up my camera and excitedly take a few shots of the pretty butterfly.

雙色帶蛺蝶（臺灣單帶蛺蝶）雄 Athyma cama zoroastres (Orange Staff Sergeant)

Looking back now, I feel like shooting myself.  I could have taken even better shots of the butterfly.  Now I might never get the chance to.  But I’ll always have Orchard Road.  How depressing.  I would throw myself off a mountain but there isn’t one high enough here.

黃斑蛺蝶 Sephisa chandra androdamas (Eastern Courtier)

To add salt to my injury, and everybody else’s that they don’t have a La La Shan in their backyard, La La Shan is more than rare butterflies as well.  Trees, the shape of bonsais, grow out of the sides of the mountain, like static ballerinas curving for the sky.  On a clear day, La La shan is a picture of how Heaven might have looked like, to a person who’s had nothing but HDB skylines.

A tip for the traveller though, you might want to venture further than just the area with the large trees because the scenery up there is worth it.  Really!  If the skies are clear and you’re early enough, the air up there is sweet enough to make you sing! (Hence the birds singing giddily!)

褐翅青灰蝶-(褐底青小灰蝶)-Tajuria-caeruela_

After La La Shan (I was a little sorry to leave even though my partner didn’t think I was) and a little chat with a yellow cab driver who mentioned rare sunbears in La La Shan, we made a stop at the butterfly garden where you can see a giant purple Nymphalidae statue.

紫俳蛺蝶(紫單帶蛺蝶) Parasarpa-dudu-jinamitra-(White-Commodore)

It was here that we shot most of our Papilios and some Nymphalidaes.

紅斑脈蛺蝶 (紅星斑蛺蝶) Hestina assimilis formosana (Red Ring Skirt)

台灣綠蛺蝶-Euthalia-formosana

台灣綠蛺蝶-Euthalia formosana (Formosan Duke)

After this stop, we travelled to Hui Tou Wan.

Papiliomemnon heronus (Great Mormon)

Hui Tou Wan is something out of a Chinese painting. Although I could not grab any photos of the scenery as Ah Quan weaved around and around the precarious sides sprouted over with small signs that have large rocks falling onto a running stick man (Beware landslides and falling rocks!), it was reminiscent of several movies rolled into one road trip.  The narrow road James Bond was on when he was racing several baddies in Quantum Solace overlooking cliffs falling away into nothing, the passing of Argonath in Lord of the Rings and vaguely Clash of the titans, as we looked with awe at some of the fallen sides of the mountain, the size of which you would thought was only possible with movie special effects.

Papilio nepheluschaonulus (Yellow Helen)

Unfortunately, for all its great scenery, we did not have much fortune with the butterflies.  In spite of walking up and down the bends, all I could find were half-beaks and a straggly dog looking sad and wanting a friend.  We were in the path of an approaching Typhoon.

碧翠灰蝶 (江崎綠小灰蝶) Chrysozephyrus esakii (Esaki’s Hairstreak)

Typhoons were common in Taiwan, sometimes mild, sometimes very destructive.  Butterfly activity was low.  Ah Quan took out his red jacket which he said the butterflies favoured but those butterflies were nought to be seen that day.

紫日灰蝶-(紅邊黃小灰蝶)-Heliophorus-ila-matsumurae-(Restricted-Purple-Sapphire-2

We left disappointedly for our next location closer to Bi Lui Shen Mu.  There we were enveloped in fog, and had the company of a Taiwanese couple cooking spaghetti on a portable stove, a lone Purple Sapphire butterfly perching on a yellow flower and a blue bug pretending to be part of the furniture.

白鐮紋蛺蝶-(白鉤蛺蝶)Polygonia-c-album-asakurai-(Comma-Butterfly)

白鐮紋蛺蝶 (白鉤蛺蝶)Polygonia c-album asakurai (Comma Butterfly)

We headed up to Guan Yun, a stone hostel with both rooms and dormitories for mountaineers and hikers alike.  The environment, reminds me of an old monastery, very simple and decorated with Chinese sayings.

琉璃蛺蝶-Kaniska-canace-drilon-

 

琉璃蛺蝶Kaniska canace drilon (Blue Admiral)

Our next stop was Bi Lui Shen Mu. As this part of our journey was the most exciting, I will leave this for my next post.  Valley of the Kings Part 2 🙂

 

Flower Funk (Singapore Gardens By The Bay)

Sunny Chir and the young Jonathan

Over the weekend, Butterflycircle members were graciously invited by Gardens By The Bay to do a butterfly survey.  Unbeknownst to them, many of us had already been prowling the grounds… to little success.  Host plants were still few in number and the lack of shelter on the grounds make it difficult for anyone to see clearly enough against the glare of the sun to shoot a Grass Blue.

Founding father of BC

However, they do seem enthusiastic about increasing the butterfly and hostplant population.  Let’s just hope that the trees grow tall enough to provide some shelter by then.

XMM of BC

I didn’t get a good shot of a butterfly worth posting all day and I didn’t the last time we visited the area either.  I did however promptly get headache and a bad bout of flu which I am still suffering from right now.

Interesting displays at the visitor centre

I also did get many shots of the Tulip Exhibit just before they disappeared.

The Tulips were… okay… the little flowers, traditional shoes and cacti make for better photographic subjects.

Cacti Flower

Artistic forms in the cacti

Beautiful bark patterns

The leaves of the cacti are full of symmetry and pattern

Another geometric pattern

Some of them are furry too

Other than the cacti the little flowers and leaves were intriguing as well.

Leaves with interesting stains

Translucent flowers

A fiery flower amongst silvery branches and leaves

Tiny flowers all in a row

Tiny flowers forming a nice frame

I could not get many nicer shots of the tulips.  There were just way too many people.  I saw two ladies tussling to get into one of the gazebos.  I anticipated a cat fight but was disappointed.  It was so crowded little children were literally climbing up the walls (no kidding.  I saw a parent leave two young girls on top of a ledge so that they could have space to crawl around).

Whee! Tree Hoppers!

Came across SO MANY of these adorable little creatures today.

They were no bigger than HALF of my pinkie fingernail.

And look so amazing up close with their fantastic tri-horns.

And their comical faces!

Canon 6D: My New Toy and The Same Critters in a Different… Viewfinder

After 7 years of roughing it out in the field with my trusty Canon 40D, I’ve upgraded to a spanking new Canon 6D, which has superior ISO capabilities and picture quality.  Here are some of my first shots:

I love this pretty Awl (Hasora vitta vitta).

I have no idea what caterpillar this is but it’s both amazing and creepy at the same time.  It perfectly blended itself into the stems of this plant.

I love the background that the C180 produces with the Canon 6D.

Kaeng Krachan: Celebrities, Critters and Campsites

As promised, this is the second and third installment of Kaeng Krachang – combined!

Turns out, I did not have as many blog worthy photos of critters to make an entire post on its own, so everything other than butterflies will go in this post.

As you can see from this very simplistic map attached, all the intersections and trails we visited are along the bird watching trails.

Here are some environmental photos to show you how popular the place is.

This is a photo taken at the first intersection.

This is Antonio and Nelson getting acquainted with the butterflies at the second intersection.

The second intersection sees the most visitors.  Look at the numbers of parked cars:

These is one of the puddling butterfly groups we encountered at the third intersection.

I would say the second intersection is very popular.  It was also at the intersection that our own butterfly celebrity Les Day (and the rest of us less popular butterfly enthusiasts) bumped into a shirtless Dr Ian Redmond (below, right), whom I had mistaken for yet another Caucasian male who had decided to take on the Thai forest and its biting inhabitants without a shirt after visiting the beach.   As it turned out (Les explained), Dr Ian Redmond is a conservationist who has been in the field for 30 years, is a champion for gorillas and needs no introduction.  He has a wikipage here.  You can stalk his page on Facebook here.

Unfortunately, out of the group, only Les managed to recognise him.  The rest of us spend too much time listening to David Attenborough’s soothing voice on DVD, reading C&P4 and had no access to BBC.  However, judging from Les’ reaction, we decided in our herd mentality that he must be famous and proceeded to take group photos with him like fanboys and girls.

Dr Ian Redmond was travelling with a group who for all you know, might have done conservation work and were just as knowledgeable.  However, since Les didn’t recognise the others, we decided that we didn’t know better either and continued pursuing the relentless butterflies.  We lodged at Samarn Bird Camp while we were shooting at Kaeng Krachan.  Click here for more information.

Forgive the childish photo-combo design. It looked good on my phone and seemed like a good idea at the time

Samarn birdcamp has hot showers, acceptable food and airconditioning.  If you didn’t go anywhere you wouldn’t think you were here to rough it out in the Thai National Park.  Our hosts were really friendly and accommodating and their dogs were super friendly and ‘adopted’ us with so much as a pat on the head.

Hoffe, the dog with only three paws, zonking out near the kitchen

Samarn Bird Camp is very popular with birders (of course) and they make trips out daily early in the morning.

On to the non-butterfly critters… the below is one of the creatures on LC’s and Nelson’s agenda:

Lantern Bug

This Lantern Bug was spotted on the same tree where I found my Blue Begum discreetly perched just behind.  The bug maintained a good height throughout the day (the time that we were there) which we thought was odd because some of the ones we had encountered tended to come down lower during the early morning hours.  We tried several means to photograph this Lantern Bug, including piling up dead logs to climb up on and once, even sitting on Nelson’s shoulders just to get closer to the critter.

We also encountered a very shiny tiny jumping spider (Salticidae).

We also came across this very slow moving colourful bug with what looked like Chinese pom-poms on its feelers.  Like the horned beetle, this bug took a long time to get ready to take off, gradually opening its wings intermittently and psyching itself to fly away.  And when it did, it mustered nothing more than a metre’s distance!

The most intriguing creature we encountered was this clear winged moth.  The moth came by on two occasions at the second intersection.  It had a habit of perching its front legs on an object and while hovering, wave its hairy back legs rhythmically like it was riding an invisible bicycle.

We had the good fortune of managing to photograph some interaction between butterfly and some of these interesting characters:

Unfortunately when butterflies are in such numbers, most of such encounters are of the macabre type:

I did see several skinks make off with some of the smaller butterflies.  Ants did the same and some bees were not spared either (as above).

Tiny butterflies especially were easy pickings but they were in such huge numbers too.

Kaeng Krachan is one of the places you have to visit if you’re a butterfly enthusiast! 🙂  So what are you waiting for?

Kaeng Krachang – Butterfly Hordes

It has taken me a while to sit down and write about our recent trip to Kaeng Krachang.  Firstly there were way too many photos and too much to write about.  Secondly, I hardly knew most of the species that I had photographed as I’m not familiar with Thai butterflies.  It is with the kind help of Dr Seow and the kind community at Butterflycircle that many of the butterflies could be indentified.

One more Space

This trip was only possible with the great companionship of Antonio Giudici and Les Day, two butterfly enthusiasts who have currently made Thailand their home.

Butterfly fields

Due to the photograph intensive nature of this trip, I will be breaking the write up into 3 parts: the butterflies, location and other interesting critters.

Papilio protenor Cramer (Spangle)

Papilio protenor Cramer (Spangle) underside

First off, I have to say through my 7 years on the pursuit of butterflies, I have never seen so many butterflies.  They amassed in such huge numbers that they literally covered an entire bank with their fluttering wingtips.

Papilio polytes romulus

Papilio polytes romulus f cyrus

They were so secure in their numbers that if you were slow and gentle enough, you could gently sweep your hand across their wing tips and they would not move.

Papilio paris paris (Paris Peacock)

Papilio nephalus chaon (Black and White Helen)

This location is by no means the butterfly world’s biggest secret.  Lots of people come by these spots on a regular basis.

Papilio nephalus chaon (Black and White Helen)

Birders, entomologists, geologists and even conservationists frequent these roads.

Papilio memnon agenor f distantianus

And these are literally roads.  Not a secret enclave deep within the forests, or a quiet spot eyed by the sun amongst tall trees.

Atrophaneura adamsoni

The butterflies gather at the sides of the mud roads which cross several sections of streams through which cars trundle over everyday.

Vindola erota erota

Terinos clarissa falcata

It really is the most unglamorous spot you can imagine.

Pereronia anais anais

Paratica melaneus

There are three stream-road intersections on the trails of Kraeng Krachang which we visited that have these huge masses of butterflies, the first, second and third intersection.

Parantica agleoides agleoides

Papilio castor mehala (Burmese Raven)

The first intersection is where many of these butterflies below will perch on the leaves open-winged in the morning sun.  By noon, they will be puddling in their masses on the ground.

Graphium aristeus (Striped Swordtail)

At this intersection, there are clear paths or trails leading from this intersection into the forest.

Bindahara phocides

It is on one of these trails (the trail leading uphill next to the intersection) that we encountered a very small Plane.  Nearly half the size of the Singapore species, we were stunned to find such a small version of the Plane.

Along the way to the second intersection, which is less than a few hundred metres away from the first intersection, I saw many large butterflies fluttering around the roadside flowers.

Prothoe franck uniformis

The second stream-road intersection is by far the most exciting.  It is on the trail leading from the intersection on the right hand side (if you’re coming from the first intersection) that I encountered my second Blue Begum perched facing downwards behind a tree.

Polyura eudamippus

This Great Nawab was so drunk it had fallen face forward into the mud.

I had been looking for Lantern Bugs and was surprised to see this well camouflaged individual quietly sitting behind a large tree.  The second stream also gave me my first puddling Great Nawab.  Everybody was so excited to be graced by the presence of this especially rare butterfly, that we got to see Les running at top speed when we called out “Great Nawab!!!”

The Great Nawab was such a celebrity butterfly that everybody took turns to have their photos taken with it.  Like most of the Polyura butterflies, once they are hooked on whatever they are drinking, these butterflies turn from flitty frightened swift flying rarities into drunken friendly blokes.

Indeed, I was so happy to see it I was beside myself.

Libythea narina rohini

Euthalia recta (Red Spot Marquis)

The second intersection also saw three different kinds of half-beak butterflies as well as my greatest number of first-time butterflies such as the Red Spot Marquis and the Black Veined Sergeant.

Discophora sondaica zal

Athyma ranga obsolescens (Black Veined Sergeant) 3

Athyma ranga obsolescens (Black Veined Sergeant)

Besides the usual pretty butterflies, the second intersection also had a great number of interesting members of the Hesperidae.

Seseria strigata

Odontoptilum angulatum angulatum

Ctenoptilum vasava vasava (Tawny Angle)

Thoressa masoni

It also had a good number of different crows which I did not get all the photographs of.

Euploea modesta (Plain Blue Crow)

The third intersection did not have as huge masses of butterflies but the butterflies that did visit are no less interesting.

Kalima limborgi

The leaf butterfly is well liked in butterfly enclosures and parks but this is the first Leaf Butterfly that I have encountered in the wild and managed to photograph.

Kalima limborgi

The butterfly’s likeness to the dead leaves on the ground is astounding.

Neorina crishna

It is also here that we encountered the beautiful Neorina crishna.  This beautiful large butterfly is really difficult to spot amongst the bamboo and palm vegetation, a distinct feature of the third intersection.

Charaxes bernadus crepax (Common Tawny Rajah)

Charaxes bernadus crepax (Common Tawny Rajah) (2)

We also encountered two very different looking specimens of the Common Tawny Rajah above.

Other notable mentions are:

Jacoona anasuja

The Great Imperial which was encountered on the bush on the left side of the second intersection.

Neptis miah nolana

This little lascar, the only lascar I shot the entire trip, feeding on what looked like bird waste on a rock at the first intersection.

Graphium antiphates

This Five Bar Swordtail puddling at the first intersection.

Next up… the deeper darker denizens of Kaeng Krachang 🙂

My name is Ant (Myrmarachne maxillosa)

My name is Ant. Give me a hug.

One of my best loved mimic spiders is the the ant mimicking jumping spider Mymarachne maxillosa.  It doesn’t have as beautiful a colour as the Wide Jawed Viciria, but it does have such an endearing expression.

Picking its teeth?

We found this individual (amongst plenty others) in between banana leaves webbed together in the park.

Getting one to stop and pose for the camera however was a really tough challenge.  We literally had the spider crawling all over us for such a long time before we could get it to stay in the web it had made and relax for a bit.

This spider mimics the ant’s scurrying movement across the leaves, waves its first pair of feet in the air like a pair of ant feelers and is also the same colour as the ant it is trying to mimic below.  What a brilliant disguise!:

Now don’t you wanna give Ant a big hug?

Jumpin’ “Scorpions”!

Hazing sleepily through the first weekend of shooting after starting a full week of commuting 3 hours daily on the ever popular SBS bus alternating between trying not to collapse on the person next to me and trying not to throw up from all the braking and surging like a small dive boat riding the Fremantle waves, we happily came across a Wide Jawed Viciria, which somewhat resembles a Scorpion.

Wider Jawed viciria (Viciria praemandibularis)

The Wide Jawed Viciria comes under the family of Jumping Spiders (Salticidae).  Jumping spiders are a hit with nature photographers.  Wow, they’ll give you a million great poses.  They could scratch their armpits and still look glamorous.  In the photo above, the spider is drumming on the leaf.

The most photogenic spider in the natural world

Here our model is looking demure by clasping its “hands” together like a formal portrait while directing its famed “headlights” gaze gently at the camera.  Oh by the way, our model is male.

Over here the spider is doing the tango, putting its weight on one side and then quickly on the other side and back again.

Getting ready to jump!

Our eager model also provides great action shots.  Here it is above, getting ready to do the action that gives the Salticidae its name: JUMP! And jump it did, multiple times onto… my partner’s lens hood.  Look at the back legs bunch up ready to provide it with the force to jump a distance so many times its own body length it’s like us jumping over an entire HDB estate.

Hmmm…. what kind of disguise might this be?

Other than the typical poses, the Viciria also does this strange yoga like pose when disturbed.  Though I don’t know what on earth it’s trying to mimic. 

Next time you’re out wandering in the park, do keep an eye out for this great looking fellow!  It likes to hang out under leaves, literally, just like these good looking fellows of the bat persuasion:

😀

LEASH Your Dog – SORRY does NOTHING

Remember my little dog Sam?  He’s going to be 3 in May.

Like most dogs, Sammie was born with a pair of sparkly black eyes.  And he was a perfectly healthy, normal, active occasionally naughty fellow like every other dog that you probably have ever met.

Shortly after Sammie’s second birthday I took him to a park at Lower Pierce Reservoir where I kept him on a leash and we sat on the bench overlooking the reservoir enjoying a quiet evening.

As with all nice parks, people will bring their nice dogs to a nice park.  A lady with her Standard Poodle and Miniature Poodle came trotting over with tails wagging towards me and Sam.  The owner was several metres behind and her dogs were NOT ON LEASH.  Sammie, being the usual friendly fellow, welcomed them with happy wagging tail.

WITHOUT WARNING, her Standard Poodle had reached my dog and me and before I could react, he had bitten Sam on the head tearing out his left eyeball.

Yes when it happened she was shocked.  She and her husband accompanied me to the animal hospital.  They paid all the hospital bills.  SHE CRIED, SAID HER DOG NEVER ATTACKED ANYTHING IN HIS LIFE.  They said they were SORRY.

Yes I remember that they said sorry while Sam screamed and cried all the way to the hospital.  I remembered they said sorry when then the vet told us she couldn’t save his eye.  I remembered they said sorry while I watched him sleeping in his cot whimpering in his sleep.  I remembered they said sorry when I couldn’t make Sam walk.  He peed in his bed and didn’t dare to take a single step for two entire days after he was discharged from hospital.  I remembered they said sorry when he refused to eat, refused to drink, yelped out in surprise everytime I walked by his left side.  They said sorry when I brought Sam repeatedly to the vet because his wounds wouldn’t heal.  Yes I remembered they said sorry when I realised that it was really impossible for me to ever again bring Sam to a doggie cafe, to a doggie run, to the dog beach, to a doggie birthday because everytime I see a dog approach Sam, I just panic.  And while they are probably somewhere out there happily walking their dog all I have are their sincerest apologies for every time that I feel sad whenever Sam gives me a cheeky one-eyed smile.

If I could go back to that evening almost a year ago, I would do anything to be standing where she was standing, having done anything to prevent her dog from coming near.  I want to stand there in disbelief.  And say that I had NEVER ATTACKED ANYTHING IN MY LIFE.  I want to say that I WAS SORRY.  I was SORRY I hurt your dog.  I was SORRY I couldn’t give you back your dog.  I was SORRY you DIDN’T LEASH YOUR DOG so that this wouldn’t have to happen.

Big dog owners have actually tried to tell me that Sammie might have provoked an attack as logically and calmly as how some people ask rape victims whether they had done anything to trigger an attack.  Do these people go up to parents whose children have been mauled by dogs that their children might have provoked a vicious attack?  No.  They will just say they are SORRY.

How many times have I heard big dog owners say that their dogs have never hurt a fly?  They say that and then when something happens, they add on a sentence: They’re SORRY.  SO SORRY.  So SORRY your child was hurt.  So SORRY your dog was hurt.  So SORRY you were hurt.

I’d rather hear that you were out there and that it was your INTENTION to get someone hurt.  That you liked to see it happen.  That you wanted it to happen and that you were not SORRY that it happened.  That whatever small useless dog or small defenseless child deserved it because they must have jumped on your dog, they must have pulled its ears, they must have been noisy, irritating, something.

That way I’d know that nobody suffered because you were merely ignorant, you were merely stupid, careless, and that every ounce I hate I feel towards you and every legal step I take to ensure that your dog is destroyed was justified.

Leash your dog.  Such a simple act.  That way we can be friends.  We can talk and I can get to know how your large best friend is more love than fur and teeth.  I want to meet you first before your dog, not the other way round.  Then I know that I can trust your dog and you can trust mine.  If all goes well, Sammie could have a friendly giant for a friend and your big dog could have a tiny buddy.

Is that so difficult?  Just a simple clip of the leash.  So many tears need not have been wasted.  And there would not be any need for SORRY.