Talking To My Dog About Birds And The Upcoming School Board Elections

This afternoon I took some time out to have a good talk with my dog Banjo. The last time we had a really good talk was the Sunday afternoon before the week of the big snows. On that Sunday, with his feet hanging ten out the door of his house and his head cocked my way, I told him to enjoy the day. I told him how nice it was to see the robins and bluebirds back and I explained to him come Monday it would be a different world.

He gave me that look of his and I went on to explain that I had been watching the weather radar in the house and you could see the big storm coming our way. His one ear twitched at this news, but he didn't seem too concerned. Then I went in the house and the next day when I came out of house there were five foot drifts in his kennel. To a snow loving dog like Banjo, this was heaven.

Today our discussion centered around the last remaining snow pile our by the pine tree. We saw some bluebirds and could hear robins, grackles, a meadowlark, mourning doves, a cardinal and some blue jays. I told him it was like listening to Mother Nature's symphony. His head titled sideways at this analogy. I went on to explain to him it was sort of like listening to Peter and the Wolf where the instruments were animals that you could pick out. Then I added that the beauty of Mother Nature's symphony that you could learn what the birds were by their sounds.

When I explained to him that most people can't tell a robin's sound from a blue jay's, he frown. The I asked him what he thought about the other night when the coyotes were howling off to the east as the lights of Wal-Mart were lighting up the west. He cocked his head to the left, squinted his eyes and raised his brow at this question.

Then I asked him who he thought would win the school board election this coming Tuesday. His head dropped, he turned around, went into to his house and took a nap.