Tigger the Dog knew nothing of chipmunks until about six months into her stay here in Nashville. They started teasing her just outside her perch in the Good Room window. They’d run back and forth doing chipmunk things and she’d go mental trying to get at them. As soon as we’d open the door to let her out, she’d take off and head right to the place they’d last been, determined to give them the what what. Then she'd madly follow the trail of smells in a zig-zag all over the yard ending at some hole where, baffled, she’d wait and watch for them to emerge, totally unaware they had come out a hole on the other end and were now behind her pointing and laughing. As time went on, she stopped chasing. It got too hot and she couldn’t be bothered. It made her sad they didn’t want to play with her so she literally took her ball and went elsewhere. The chipmunks got braver. Or the chipmunks got stupider. One of those things, and the suckers started zipping out in front of her napping in the sun. Or as we opened the door, waiting to the last minute and only running if TTD saw them. Two years of this game of chipmunk tag and TTD has never once not been "It." Until last week. This guy made the mistake of waiting till she saw him before he ran, not knowing I’d shoved a stick in the hole in front of the air-conditioner that he was obviously counting on escaping through. TTD caught him as he went in. Totally surprised at finally getting one, she dropped him and then started to panic. She picked him up to play with him like she plays with her babies and chipmunk was as limp and uncooperative and very, very dead. When I took chipmunk away in a glamorously plastic bag, TTD was crushed. She couldn’t figure out what happened. She kept looping from her perch on the steps to the hole, checking it out from every angle and then franticly checking out all other holes in the vicinity. Not one chipmunk to be found. But she kept checking and waiting and looking and pacing and Chewbacca whining and still nothing. Every time we’ve let her outside since wining the game of tag, she’s gone right to the hole and then, after a suitable amount of investigation... I'm pretty sure this is indicative of every female after a failed relationship: revisiting the trauma day after day expecting new results. Okay, maybe not 'every female', maybe just me. If I examine my past relationships with men - heck, my relationships with people in general - I'm 100% sure I'm doing the same loop as TTD is with her chipmunk: I examine the trauma from every angle, wait for them to change, whine endlessly about how it all went wrong and still end up with the same result: a dead relationship. I've even stuck my nose in places I shouldn't, trying to get answers to questions that have none. Or at least, answers I won't like. And then I sit and wait. And wait. And wait but the results will be the same: a dead rodent. And the look on my face is as pitiful as the look TTD has on her face here. And, just like TTD, I will forget the drama of the chase, push away the trauma of the death and go out there again, hunting magical chipmunk relationships, ever hopeful. When will we ever learn?
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AuthorMy name is ej. I'm a girl. I say that because with the short hair and the short initials, folks aren't always sure. More brilliant insights to who I am in About me Archives
April 2019
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