Bee’s been having a rough time lately as she comes into full maturity. She thinks she should be in charge, but she can’t pull it off because of her multiple physical problems. By all rights, she should have replaced Frica as leader of the dog pack, but she lacks the ability to give the proper signals, then gets frustrated and too aggressive when she can’t.
Frica meanwhile can get out of her way most of the time. When she can’t I have to interfere even though I hate to because that only increases Bee’s frustration. Because of all this, I have to strike a balance in my relationship with Bee, supporting her as she makes her peace with who she is at this stage of her life at the same time as ensuring that she doesn’t inadvertently hurt Frica with that overgrown upper jaw of hers. Sometimes this hasn’t been easy for either one of us.
Early this morning, I turned Bee’s collar on to flash mode and took the dogs out like I always do. As soon as we got outside, Fric and Ollie went off to do their thing, but Bee stayed between my legs, a behavior she assumes (with any convenient human adult) when she feels unsure of herself. Because the other two went off with nary a second’s hesitation, I doubted there was a wild animal out there that had spooked her.
I wondered what this could be for a while, but soon became entranced by all the lightening bugs that decorated the trees and the sky like countless flashing Christmas lights. It was an otherwise pitch-black cloudy night, the perfect night for a female to transmit her amorous message to a male without interference from moon or stars. For a while I was so awe-struck by the spectacle that I didn’t realize that the corgi between my legs with the hem of my robe and nightgown draped over her head was watching the flashes, too.
So now I wonder. Was it just all those flashes that spooked her? Or did it have something to do with the fact that she flashes, too? Her collar flashes red which I know she, even with her visual problems, most likely sees as a shade of grey that would look whitish in the dark. Could she have thought that she was seeing tiny versions of herself? Has she attached some meaning to the flashes of her own collar that she then projected on those lightening bugs?
I don’t know. All I know is that nothing would induce her to leave her cave under me until I turned and opened the door. And then she turned and quickly scurried inside.