Watch Dog

Sometimes when I take Jin on a walk, he goes into stalking mode. He will start walking with his body lower to the ground, his ears back, his head down, and his tail up, and he will slow down pretty dramatically. Usually he is stalking a squirrel, or occasionally he will stalk a tree where he once saw a squirrel.

But on Sunday morning when I took Jin on a walk, there was a point where he went into stalking mode like I have never seen him stalk before. In fact, he slowed down so much I was practically dragging him along on the leash, and anyone who has seen me walk Jin, or has had the pleasure themselves, knows that this is not usually a problem. I looked around to try to see what he was stalking and could see nothing - no squirrel, no small animal, no pile of leaves that looked like a small animal.

And then we passed an orange traffic cone, and the way Jin turned his head and stared at the orange cone as we walked by made me think that he must have been stalking the traffic cone. What a funny idea, I thought, and I laughed about it to myself.

Then this evening when I took Jin on his walk, he went into stalking mode again, with no squirrel in sight. And sure enough, I looked around and there within Jin's stalking radius was another orange traffic cone. He really was stalking the cone! This time when I laughed, I laughed out loud.

This coming Thanksgiving, I am going to be grateful for a dog who can protect me from orange traffic cones.