Large Fierce Mammal

Tanner the Barbie Dog, who shits wherever he is when you lift his tail. Read all about him at https://thepioneerwoman.com/confessions/tanner_the_barb/

The LFM Clan includes five Dogs, and of those, our Australian Shepherd Bruce is the most discriminating in the where and when of his every excretory deposit. We are not alone in this.

I have previously described Silvia Jay as a, “… deservedly respected Dog behaviour consultant, and tenured member of our extremely short list of Esteemed Friends,” and written of her that, “… when Silvia talks about Dogs, or anything else for that matter, you would be well advised to put your tail in a neutral position, shut the hell up, and listen.” This morning I read something she’d posted to her Facebook page in the matter of a similar issue with the Dog of her own family, Bowie.

By way of background, Bowie has proven impervious to any weather related incentive to relieve himself close to home, instead preferring the field across the road from his Family holdings. He sees his stool promptly disposed of, so its location after arrival is moot, but somehow this is inconsequential to Bowie.

So this morning I read this from Silvia’s electronic “pen”:

Bowie’s reluctance to potty in the morning on our property saga continues.
Part three, and final installment: He wins. He can now pee and poop in the field across from us. On bad weather days I will get dressed and stand in pouring rain and a blasting snow storm. My change of heart came when I watched Mike taking him over there yesterday morning off the leash and Bowie was moving to (sic) relaxingly with him, and so happily sniffing, peeing, having a dump, then waiting for Mike, then waiting again by the side walk and crossing with him, without any cues, just very fluid and organic like they were connected with an invisible bond – well which they are. That conduct needs to have a payoff, I think.

I think so too.

In the matter of Teachers, I once wrote:

It’s said that the more we learn, the more we come to realize how much more there is to learn, but I regard this description as being far too limiting, task oriented, and dripping with drudgery – as in the further down the road you go, the more you come to realize how much farther you have still to travel. I take a more exploratory angle on this. While the acquisition of knowledge certainly serves to highlight the need for more knowledge in those of us who thirst for it in our quest for that state called “Wisdom”, I see each thing learned as a lamp that further serves to light the way. Each lamp illuminates where we are as it sheds its glow upon what was previously unseen, while at the same time permitting us to perceive new paths diverging into the gloom, each leading who knows where? Of such is born the spirit of exploration and enlightenment!

Those on such a quest will follow these dim paths one by one. Sometimes in the darkness, another lamp is seen in the distance, carried by one who knows well that path, and others convergent and divergent. Who has knowledge of the most fundamentally important kind. If their knowledge includes paths we wish to travel, they may be convinced to impart that knowledge to us, and so become our Teacher, even as they themselves are following the glow of the lamp carried by a Teacher of their own. Even as the student may find himself approached by other lamp bearers desiring knowledge of the paths he knows best. Even as one of these may be the Teacher himself.

Anyone worth learning from makes no pretense of being a finished product, and such people are perpetual students invigorated by their passion, A True Teacher can effortlessly blend his own quest with that of his student.

All of this inspired me today to offer you two things. First that Silvia Jay is a True Teacher by my standards and her experience highlights the fact that not all lamp bearers are human.

Second is this bit of frivolity to offset all the scholastic solemnity in the room.

Ode to a Discerning Shitter

By LFM

Brucie, oh Brucie, oh Brucie, go POOP!
Drop a turd in the garden, or onto the stoop!
Your toilet’s no less than the whole out of doors!
Find a spot in the county that’s worthy of yours!

Mrs. LFM and Bruce, neither of whom is even considering pooping in this picture. (LFM photo)