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.