Scout's Wisdom
The jogger who was stretching after his run was giving me an interesting look last night.
Scout and I had just wrapped up a beautiful evening walk and we stopped at one of our usual photo spots. Scout has gotten so used to photos at this overlook that I don’t need to tell her to hop up anymore. She just bounds up there and sits down and waits for her photo. Last night all was as normal as we stopped for a few moments to take in the sunset. But when I got up and did a gentle tug on the leash, she wasn’t having it. I tugged a bit harder and she resisted even more. So I took it as a bit of a sign to take a bit more time and sat back down. A few minutes later, I was thinking it was time to get back as dinner was going to be ready soon at home so I stood up and tugged gently and... same thing. Tugged a bit harder... nope. She wasn’t done.
Around this time the jogger arrived at the overlook area and was doing his stretching and was watching me standing tugging at Scout and her casually resisting. At this point, I wasn’t annoyed as much as amused by Scout and was literally laughing out loud at this. I caught the jogger out of the corner of my eye and he definitely seemed amused by what he was witnessing of this guy and his stubborn dog.
I sent a text to my family saying, “OK we’re having a bit of a problem. Scout doesn’t want to leave. She just wants to sit here on the wall.” And a few minutes later, “I cannot get her off the wall!!!!” I sent a few photos at this point..
Replies from family of general amusement followed.
So I had a choice at this point. I could have moved her and forced the issue. But it was a lovely night with a lovely sunset and Scout was just totally content to just sit there and take it all in. So I took her cue and gently petted her chest and turned and dropped my feet off the side of the ledge and just sat there.
It was a week ago that I was midway through the beautiful and soul-filling retreat that I shared about. It hasn’t been a bad week or anything in the days that followed, but it was a very full week and an experience far from the away-ness of that retreat time. I was feeling the fullness of the week and the pull of many different directions. But this overlook moment was a time that connected, even in a small way, back to that space and those moments last week.
I needed the laughter of Scout’s unwillingness to move from that ledge. I needed the funny look from the stretching jogger. I needed the time to just settle into that time and just be and not feel the need to go go go. And Scout needed the scratches and pets.
As I was writing this, I thought back to a poem entitled “How it is with them, and how it is with us” by Mary Oliver in her collection Dog Songs:
We become religious,
then we turn from it,
then we are in need and maybe we turn back.
We turn to making money,
then we turn to the moral life,
then we think about money again.
We meet wonderful people, but lose them
in our busyness.
We're, as the saying goes, all over the place.
Steadfastness, it seems,
is more about dogs than about us.
One of the reasons we love them so much.
So today is a bit of an ode to this wonderful, sweet, smart, stubborn companion for our family who makes us laugh and also reminds us to just slow down and be
And here’s a few other photos of this pup from the week including a few of the most recent Daily Doggo Devotions (@dailydoggodevotions on Instagram). Click for full sizes.
And then the most recent photos of the bench...
