Garter Snake
I can feel the sun’s warmth radiating on the other side of the path. I uncoil slowly moving toward the heat while stretching every inch of the way. Mid path I feel heavy footsteps and quick shallow breaths. Dogs and hikers. Damn. I freeze. I stay frozen even when the high pitched screaming starts.
“Oh my God. Oh my God. A snake. I didn’t even see it. It’s a snake.”
And laughter from the other hiker. “He’s just trying to cross the road. It’ll take him awhile.”
The footsteps continue and become memory before I make my way across the path into the long brown grass on the other side. Close call.
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
Monday, July 10, 2017
Perspective
One morning, one backyard, two dogs.......
Ernie
The crazy lady who calls herself Mom is slipping her feet into her flip flops. I spring to all fours and make it to the bedroom door just as she is opening it. I run and slide, run and slide down the hall beating her to the sliding glass door. I am now desperate for a patch of grass, any patch of grass. It has been a long night in my bed under her bed.
I am breathing heavily as I hit the lawn. I spend a few minutes searching for the just right spot. I lift my leg and ahhhh sweet relief. The light summer breeze gives me the all the information I need about the neighborhood. That cat ran across the lawn again last night. I tried telling her last night. She was rude and told me to shut up. The family that shares our back fence has a pot of beans cooking. I can also hear the chickens next door enjoying breakfast and planning their day. Like they do anything. I trot over to the side fence we share with them.
"Ernie." She warns me. Then I hear the Boxer next door and race to the fence. With my fiercest bark I warn him to stay on his side of the fence. He yells the same message back at me.
"Ernie!" I jump away from the fence. "Go. Into. The. House."
I race back into the house. The sliding glass closes.
The Boxer Next Door
Stepping into our backyard I hear the soft cluck of the chickens two yards over, smell the cat I warned the family about last night before being told rudely to shut up, and feel the rush of the dog next door. I see his nose in the hole in our fence. He is growling and the fence is shaking because he is pushing against it. I race over toward the black quivering nose and just barely feel the wet cold when I hear the lady next door call him off. I breathe in through the space formerly occupied by his nose. That cat had been through their yard too. And ohhhh Ernie had steak last night. Lucky. And don't ask how I know. You know how I know.
Ernie
The crazy lady who calls herself Mom is slipping her feet into her flip flops. I spring to all fours and make it to the bedroom door just as she is opening it. I run and slide, run and slide down the hall beating her to the sliding glass door. I am now desperate for a patch of grass, any patch of grass. It has been a long night in my bed under her bed.
I am breathing heavily as I hit the lawn. I spend a few minutes searching for the just right spot. I lift my leg and ahhhh sweet relief. The light summer breeze gives me the all the information I need about the neighborhood. That cat ran across the lawn again last night. I tried telling her last night. She was rude and told me to shut up. The family that shares our back fence has a pot of beans cooking. I can also hear the chickens next door enjoying breakfast and planning their day. Like they do anything. I trot over to the side fence we share with them.
"Ernie." She warns me. Then I hear the Boxer next door and race to the fence. With my fiercest bark I warn him to stay on his side of the fence. He yells the same message back at me.
"Ernie!" I jump away from the fence. "Go. Into. The. House."
I race back into the house. The sliding glass closes.
The Boxer Next Door
Stepping into our backyard I hear the soft cluck of the chickens two yards over, smell the cat I warned the family about last night before being told rudely to shut up, and feel the rush of the dog next door. I see his nose in the hole in our fence. He is growling and the fence is shaking because he is pushing against it. I race over toward the black quivering nose and just barely feel the wet cold when I hear the lady next door call him off. I breathe in through the space formerly occupied by his nose. That cat had been through their yard too. And ohhhh Ernie had steak last night. Lucky. And don't ask how I know. You know how I know.
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