An evening's aggravation

A few nights ago, my son’s dog Arya was outside in yard but instead of her normal wandering and sniffing, she was barking. Based on the intensity of the sound, she was really upset.

I go out to check on her.

Someone was walking their dog right up against our fence, invading her territory. People don’t seem to understand that. People are sometimes offended that my dogs are offended when their dog pees on my fence.

I hear a board crack.

The someone walking their dog lets out a startled “Oh!” and moves away from the fence and quickly along with their walk.

Arya has broken a fence slat. She’s too big to squeeze through it, but she could hurt herself.

Temporary Fix

I bring her in, calm her down. Reassure her. Then I grumble to myself as I look for a way to repair the damage.

I find an odd board in the shed and repair it as best I can. It will need to be done properly when I have the right board, the right tools, and more daylight.

But the repair will hold for now.

Unexpected

I spend the next 20 minutes with my eyes glued to my binoculars searching nearby trees. Looking. Listening. Totally focused.

I find the owl. A great horned owl.

I've never seen one in my neighborhood before. I watch it for a while. It watches me.

I am calm and happy. I am excited to see this beautiful creature in my neighborhood.

Equanimity

Angry that I have a broken fence slat?

Or should I be grateful that being outside to fix it meant I heard the owl?

I think I'll treat it with equanimity.

And those mosquito bites I got walking through the grass searching for the owl?

I'll treat those with equanimity too. Equanimity and hydrocortisone.

If you aren't familiar with Arya, you can read a bit about her here:

double_dog_dinner.html It's a fine example of Sandy and Arya teaming up to outwit the humans. And of course, there's a cute picture of the two of them with their best innocent faces.