My daughter and I had a long discussion about the tiger attack at the San Francisco zoo last night. She has been very curious about the tiger killing incident.
We talked about it a bit and after a brief moment of silence she said, “Well, I guess you should never taunt a tiger.”
I told her that was a good motto for life.
The thought relates to the Oprah show based on the book, The Gift of Fear. The theme of the book is about trusting your instincts. For example, if an animal senses danger, it doesn’t feel bad about it or question it. It runs for its life or prepares to fight to the death. The author pointed out that only humans will get into an elevator with someone they sense is unsafe in order to “be nice.” Your basic jungle animal wouldn’t even think about. They’d be running. I am taking this to heart and I am going to discuss it with my children.
I want my son and daughter to lead a life where they neither live in fear, nor seek danger, but are savvy enough and mentally strong enough to stay away from predators of all sorts. May they never be in a situation where they taunt a tiger of any kind.
My little dog barks incessantly when my son’s remote control car is on the move. The car is black and blue and makes a loud high pitched whirring sound when it is underway. My dog is certain she is going to be attacked by it at any moment. In fear and aggression, she barks, jumps away, it moves, she barks, it moves, she jumps. Our little white dust mop of a dog doesn’t stand a chance against the Darth Vader like car. Knowing this, maybe, I will just let it run until its batteriessss runnnnnnnnnnnn out of powwerrr…But then I hear my kids quietly trying to soothe her, “its o.k. Ping, it’s ok. whirrr, bark, jump, whirr, it’s o.k. I usually head to the garage for some quiet at this point and to do the laundry. When I come back up, she has decided to strike fear into the heart of the vacuum. A festival of noise, that’s my home when noisy machinery is on the prowl. Protect us Ping from the evils of cleaning and motorized fun. And those barking dogs on the telly. I will miss the cacophony when they are old and gone. But in the moment, I long for blissful, peaceful silence. Anyway, I think I do.
My dog experienced thunder for the first time at 2:00 a.m. last night. She decided to bark at it incessantly. Miracle of miracles, it did stop every time for a bit and then back it came. It was literally like Pavlov’s dog, barking = bad noise goes away. The thunder reinforced her behavior. If only she could stop the thunder. A long, loud night of rolling thunder, incessant barking. She weighs 10 pounds. She didn’t stop the thunder, just killed any chance of sleep for me for the remainder of the night. Yes, I brought her into my room, up on the bed for the remainder of the night. But what happens if I am not home? How do I calm her? Did I mention how tired I am? Really really tired.
I found a site that predicts storms. Next time, I will be prepared.
