Dog Sense

There’s something odd about the way Pepper is wired. If my neighbor opens his garage door an inch she goes instantly from a snoring sleep to a barking frenzy to protest his audacity.

If a deer is standing right outside the front window munching his way through my plants

like it’s the salad bar then she just carries on snoozing. My next door to the next door neighbor has an evil looking pudgy cat that I admit I would love to toss rocks at and it makes Pepper go off like a box of rockets. The other day we were taking a walk when a fox crossed the road in front of us and it was as though it was invisible. Stink bugs. She loves Stinkbugs. And with the weather slowly warming up more and more of them are emerging. They come from the back of the fireplace or the chimney or I don’t know where. She sees one and oh my goodness its like she’s found a long lost toy. She sniffs it and then tries to suck it up and flip it in the air. I end up scrambling with tissues to delicately pick it up and release it outside before it explodes into a cloud of horrible stench the way Stinkbugs do. Pepper then starts whining like I’m Mr. Cruelty throwing away her plaything. Her idea of what is a plaything is definitely a little wonky. When we out walking last week she found something in the grass that she started to prod and push and I thought great she’s found fresh deer poo a frog or a snail or something like that. It was actually something not like that at all but an 18-inch snake and a not too happy 18-inch snake at that. I yanked Pepper’s leash just in time to see the serpent hissing madly and slithering off into a pile of leaves. Her box of misfit toys lies untouched and only the fabric bone gets Pepper time. One time a bird flew into the house and led us on a merry chase all over until I cornered it and captured it by throwing a towel. As I carried the trembling thing to freedom Pepper was running alongside me jumping up and down trying to snatch it back. As it flew off with nary a glance backwards Pepper watched it with ever-increasing sadness. She gave a deep sigh looked reproachfully up at me and took herself off to go dream of my neighbor’s garage door.