The Chase

I have this dog. Well, yes, in fact, I have four dogs. This one dog in particular however, is going to drive me to the insane asylum one day. The dog I speak of is Moby. She's the pit bull we found abandoned at the annual carnival last month.

Now this girl is smart as a whip, and she is very loving and playful. I once saw her nuzzle a fly that's how gentle she is. The cats though, they don't realize she's gentle. All they know is that this dog actually knows it's a dog! Yes, Moby is the first one we've had that actually knew she was a pup. All the others think that they're either humans or cats.

When the cats see Moby, they hiss and run. Moby, in her zeal to play with the kitties, always chases and playfully barks at them. She thinks she's playing, and is always disappointed to find out the cats think they're her latest dinner. The cats react as cats normally do when introduced to a dog that knows it's a dog. They hiss, they growl, they bark, (yes, they BARK) and well, Moby's had a few scratches so far.

So then we thought, to make things easier on the cats and on Moby, we'd put baby gates up. This way, the cats had a Moby free area. This worked.

For five minutes.

Then Moby simply jumped the gate. So we put the gates a bit higher and she'd jump them again. A bit higher still, and the same result. Finally, we started stacking the gates on top of each other so that they were more than five feet high. You'd think that would stop this pup from trying to play with the kitties, right?

Nope. She got one glance at Monica (our youngest kitten full time adopted kitten), and just had to go and say hi. There was Ms. Monica preening over at Moby, saying "Neener neener you can't ge... oh shit! Mama help!!!!" You can probably guess what occurred, right? Moby simply climbed the gates. We were so shocked to see it in fact, that we just sat there and watched in disbelief. We thought for sure she'd give up before she reached the top but nope.

Moby got all the way to the top, and standing on the very top, (one inch wide here) all four paws balanced her perfectly as she perched, turned, and grinned over at me. Then, she simply jumped down to Monica and gave her a lick on the nose. Monica of course, freaked out, hissed, growled, barked and ran. Moby? She just sat there grinning over at me. "Aren't you proud of me, Mama? There's nothing I can't do!"

Of course, at the time, I was just a bit more than frustrated. I mean, I know Moby isn't going to hurt the cats but at the same time, just a moment of peace and quiet every once in a while may just be a good thing! I'm not sure though, since it's been so long since we've actually experienced it.

Now that the animals are all safely tucked into bed, night has fallen upon us, and I am the only breathing entity still awake, I can also see a small message in Moby's actions today. Maybe it was intended, maybe it wasn't, but at the very least it was a reminder.

As kids, we all believe that we can do anything. Nothing stops us. Even that sense of fear that would stop most adults in their tracks is eluded by a child with three simple words... "I dare you..." That fear quickly disappears!

As children, we don't really see obstacles much. Yeah they're there, but they don't stop us from doing what we want as kids. It's kind of like the lock on your parents bedroom door. It's there. It exists. But it doesn't stop you from getting into the room at Christmas time to see if you can find the hidden presents!

Somewhere along the line, as we become adults, we start to see obstacles as actual roadblocks. Instead of thinking "How can I do this..." we start thinking "I can't do this because of _____." How many times have you seen something or wanted to do something and just immediately started thinking of all the reasons that you couldn't do it?

Today, Moby didn't even think about whether or not she was able to get over the gate. The only thing Moby was thinking about was the kitten on the other side of the gate and how much she wanted to play and say hi. Moby didn't even see the gate. I think, and I could be wrong, but I think that's how we're supposed to see life.

Instead of focusing on all of the roadblocks, we're supposed to focus on the main goal and only the main goal. Then, everything else just kind of falls into place. We're so busy chasing after that main goal that we don't notice all of the hurdles that we're jumping to reach our goal.

For now, we've taken the gates down to try to keep Moby from hurting herself. She really is a lot more fragile than she thinks she is. As I prepare for bed tonight, I'll be thinking about my dreams  for the future, and how I can simply go out there and chase them down.