Life can be
so confusing. Life can be so
challenging. Life presents so many
choices in the way we should think and feel.
About
fifteen months ago I blogged about our dog, Sweet Jenny, getting “skunked.” By a skunk, of course, not the way I get
skunked in Words with Friends on my smartphone.
Jenny got skunked right in her own back yard, where she encounters a
variety of animals from time to time.
She’s even featured in my new book about creating peace in her
backyard. It’s called JENNY AND HER
BACKYARD ZOO, but you won’t find skunks at all while she teaches lessons in
peacemaking.
Since that
awful night when Jenny was “skunked,” when it’s dark outside I take her out to
the front yard on a leash. We decided
that is the safest way to keep her safe and “un-skunked,” while giving her a
chance to go outside one last time before bedtime. It works out very well and gives us a chance
to see a bright and beautiful full moon once a month, which we would probably
miss otherwise.
If you know
anything at all about Texas Hill Country you already know about the abundance
of deer that share space with the human population. And very often when we turn on the front
lights and open the door, ready for our stroll around the front yard, there
will be deer in our front yard. One
glance at us and they quit munching grass and dash off to the shadows of our neighbors’
yards, pausing to stare at us from a distance and respecting the fact that it’s
our yard and we make the rules.
Last night
was no exception in our routine. But
when we turned on the front lights and opened the door there stood a skunk –
right on the walk just off the porch – staring right at Jenny and me as we
stopped safely inside the storm door. Even a bright porch light in the eyes did not
intimidate that critter, and I recalled years of warnings about nocturnal animals
not intimidated by sunlight, flashlight, or porch light. Jenny
and I were both so startled by this face to face encounter. She didn’t even bark, which she frequently
does at the deer. We stood very still as
our intruder focused is beady eyes on us, then turned and ambled very casually down
the sidewalk like he had all night and day to get out of our yard. That’s Ambled. Capital A. Like he owned the world.
Now, after
Jenny was skunked a year ago I was convinced skunks lived under the mower shed,
and I threatened to get the BB gun out of the closet and launch an attack. A friend remarked, “Remember, they were here
on this land before you,” to which I responded, “They are welcome to stay if
they pay the property tax and mow my lawn.
Otherwise, I’ll make the rules about who lives on my land.”
Since last
night, running through my head have been all the things I’ve been taught about “all
of God’s children,” and “bless the beasts and the children,” and “all creatures
great and small,” and… I could go on
forever and so could all of you. And,
every time I come right back to “my house, my rules.” And then it expands to “my land, my rules,”
and then careens right into one of our hottest issues today, “my country, my
rules.”
I think you
know by now where I’m headed. While we
take precautions to protect a member of our household, Sweet Jenny, from danger
we find an unwelcome visitor violating our home and yard so we can’t live
safely and comfortably… Is there a
metaphor for life somewhere here? Does
the “Castle Doctrine” apply to skunks? This
law is sometimes referred to as the “Make My Day Law,” so where was Clint
Eastwood when I needed him? The friend,
who unwisely told me skunks under my shed or in my back or front yard were here
long before I was, better think again.
My home, my rules, and those don't include meeting a skunk on my front
porch. I know a skunk dwon't pay the taxes or mow the lawn, but maybe this calls for some serious peacemaking.
I wish the skunk could read my new book, JENNY AND HER BACKYARD ZOO. It tells about Sweet Jenny and all the animals
she has encountered in the back yard. At
one time she dreamed of being a Zoo Keeper, but when she discovered the animals
were not friendly to each other. So she taught them to be kind to each other,
and to her, and live in harmony and peace – Sweet Jenny became a Peacemaker and
her book has guidelines at the end of the story to teach children and adults how
to become Peacemakers right in their own backyards. It’s
available in paperback from Amazon and at The Kindle Store. Get Jenny’s book today and start an epidemic
of peacemaking for special children in your life.
