Maybe while other ladies are out to lunch in Summit or enjoying the relaxation of getting their hair done in a salon there, I am trying to keep my Silken Windhound, Kensie, amused by taking a long hike on a warm summer midday not far from where we live in the Scout Field in Watchung Reservation. It is too early for the social crowd that gathers there, so it is just us two, the way she likes it. It was too hot to run so she stayed close to my side. I walked along the perimeter as I often do, as I am often interested in the flora that is growing along the field’s edge. Today I found a spectacular sight: large, dense thistle plants as tall as myself, a pale blue color, but also with a large amount of bumble bees among the open tops. I was right on top of them, but they never noticed me in their orgy of sucking up the nectar of the flowering thistles. Neither did I have any fear of them stinging me. Kensie of course was oblivious of this encounter, as her face was much lower to the ground, and she missed the entire thing.
A dog’s perspective is so different from ours by virtue of their size being so much closer to the ground. They see the world in an abbreviated perspective, and they are so much more dependent on us to see the world for them and keep them safe. I knew she was safe from the bumble bees, that they were more of a threat to me. But I was brave in my encounter with them and recognized they were focused on their life’s work, the life of a bumble bee, and they had no business with me and my hound. I was safe standing there among them, and I felt like laughing out loud because they were letting their guard down at that moment and in another circumstance, they would have stung me, to my detriment, and that would have been a terrible problem, indeed.