Chasing Squirrels

Two aspects of this story exist, the one where my dogs escape and leave me frantically chasing them around the block in tears and the one where my dogs saw their window of opportunity and flew through it without hesitation.

Meet my dogs.

Left - Kujo  :  Right - Kaiser

Can you guess which one is the lead opportunist? If you’re thinking Kujo because “who names their dog Kujo after that horrible rabid dog movie” you’re wrong. Kaiser is the opportunist of the family. The ultimate naughty that is too smart for his own good and has the world conquering mind of a cat in an unfortunately larger, stronger, and faster body. He’s my escapee and, although smaller, undoubtedly the leader of the two.

Now, for my aspect of the stressful afternoon:

We just finished hosting a garage sale and it was time to trace my tire tracks to collect the advertising signs I posted earlier. My husband was in the kitchen getting his stuff together for his night shift at work. I was looking for my keys which are never in their designated location (I gave up on that long ago) and decided to check the garage. Without thinking, I swung open the door with tunnel vision for my lost keys and within seconds my oh-so-sweet naughty little Kaiser races past my legs into the ally and about the neighborhood to terrorize the community; Kujo following close behind because it probably looked like fun and his mind capacity reflects that of a cow’s.

After 15 minutes of gallivanting about terrifying the neighbors, antagonizing other dogs, and chasing squirrels, we finally caught them. My husband, red with anger and stressed because he’s now late for work; me, a bawling unhelpful mess of a dog mom, and the dogs, happily bouncing about the backseat of my jeep like they just won a championship and are now being taken for free dinner, drinks, and dancing, are finally headed home.

Kaiser’s aspect of the situation:

He saw his window of opportunity and, without the slightest hesitation, barreled through it with great haste. Kaiser’s dream is to roam about the world carefree and (maybe) return home for dinner. He found a way to make his dream a reality and took it. There were people afraid of him, dogs jealous of him, and others (mostly me) worried about him, but that didn’t stop him from chasing his dream…or the squirrels.

We humans have dreams to chase too. Once the fleeting ever changing window of opportunity presents itself, we have two choices: to barrel through it or stay where we are – probably perfectly content but always curious of what’s on the other side. 

Just like the obstacles Kaiser faced, there will be people afraid of your success, envious people hoping that you fail, and then your loved ones (probably mom) always worrying. Regardless, your window of opportunity will open and when it does will you stay perfectly content looking out, or will you chase the squirrels?

Photo Credits : Allison Terry Images