Just about 10 years ago, Hubby and I made a trip to Florida to help friends of ours celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary. As sometimes happens other friends of ours were out of town and needed someone to care for their dog, Woody. Hubby and I were arriving late and agreed to watch Woody, in exchange for a place to stay. Woody was a Golden Retriever, and at that stage I’d had no real experience with caring for a large dog.
Our friends lived on a canal and as often happens in Florida especially for those who live around water, you get the occasional ‘gator. I’m the type of person who doesn’t care for confrontations, but when they are inevitable, I prefer to meet them head on and get it over with quickly. Unless of course, I’m dealing with a wild animal that has the potential to be deadly. Then I’m full on chicken, turning tail and running.
It was late one night and quite dark and I took Woody out for his last potty break of the night. I felt like walking so Woody and I headed down the road. We got about four houses away from where Woody lived, when I noticed something very still on the front lawn of a dark house. I stopped and stared trying to determine what it was in the dark. From where I stood it looked like a fairly large ‘gator and so I turned around and began walking quickly but carefully back towards the house. I knew that ‘gators have the ability to move very quickly when they spot prey, so while I was hustling my ass out of there, I kept looking behind me to see if it was following us and to make sure that my ass remained behind me and not is some ‘gator’s mouth.
If I recall correctly, Woody was taking his sweet Golden time and I could feel the panic rising, but somehow, miraculously Woody and I made it safely back to the house, both of us with our asses intact.
In the bright sunshine of the next day, I realized the ‘gator I’d seen the previous night, was nothing more than a palm frond that had either been cut or had fallen from a tree. Being human I felt very foolish at my flight from the night before.
Dogs on the other hand, don’t feel foolish, I’m sure it didn’t phase Woody one bit that I dragged him away from a palm frond.
I was reminded of this story last week when Sampson dragged me across the street to inspect, what I thought and I’m fairly certain he thought was a lizard.
What is that?
But as the title indicates, and the gator story proves, things aren’t always what they seem to be.
Hmpf, it’s just a piece of bark.
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