Last week, Charlotte and I were walking along a trail by the water, when she saw a stick jutting out from the bush. Now, the stick in question isn’t the same stick pictured here, because that’s a completely different stick; this stick was more like a tree. Long, twisted, and extremely appealing to one of us.
Charlotte’s not usually allowed to pick up sticks because she gnaws on them until they’re toothpicks, but I knew it was way too big. So I let her.
She got a firm grip on it and reefed and yanked and pulled as hard as she could. To my surprise, it budged. Just a little. Enough to see that it was caught up on some other branches and twigs, firmly holding it in place.
In my experience, most dogs would just keep reefing and yanking and pulling until they were exhausted. That’s what I expected Charlotte to do. But then, to my surprise, she didn’t. She went to each of the branches and twigs that was holding it in place, and snapped them near the base. Then she went back and with only a little reefing, yanking, and pulling, got the tree out of the bush.
Not entirely, of course, because I’m telling you, it was huge. But enough to remind me that when there’s something in your way, there’s always a simple way to move it.
