Photo by Angela Kirk

You just don’t know what you are going to encounter on any given day in this world. It’s what makes life both interesting and scary. On one of my daily walks with Doc, just such an encounter happened and it not only caught me off guard but had me wondering what kind of creatures they were letting into the neighborhood.

Doc didn’t even pay attention to the green thing sitting in the yard until I came to a halt and started growling at it. ” What is wrong with you?” Doc asked, and then she followed my gaze to that green thing wearing a Santa hat and holding a present. Much to my embarrassment she started to chuckle. ” That’s a fake dinosaur” she said, a left-over Christmas decoration.”

I really don’t care what Doc says, I left a wide berth when we walked by it. She knows I don’t like change or anything that looks different, it scares me. “There should be laws about what kind of holiday decorations people can have in their yards I told her, and I should have the final vote”. ” Oh really!” she exclaimed.  ” Grover, if you go through life only being around things, dogs or humans that you feel comfortable with, you are going to miss out on a lot. It’s usually never as scary as you have conjured up in your mind anyway.”

And with that she turned me around and took me back to the yard to have a close encounter with that yard ornament. I didn’t want to say she forced me but she did. I took one sniff and realized that she was right and it wasn’t even real.  ” You see, nothing to be afraid of.” “Now let’s go home and get out of the cold.” she said.

I hate to admit it, but Doc knows what she’s doing when it comes to me. If I continue to investigate and confront what I’m uneasy with, no telling where life will take me.