One wintery day I witnessed an interesting natural phenomenon.  Now the rationalists amongst us will roll their eyes at my flight of fancy but I am a poet at heart if not in reality.

Late in the day I let one of the dogs out – you never let both out who knows what kind of trouble the pair will get into.  A short while later the inside dog began to howl at the door.  I looked out and spotted the second dog.

She was standing in a defensive position on the ice, ears up, tail pointed, no barking.  I followed the line of her nose and about 30 feet away spotted the wolf – I knew it was a wolf, it was much bigger than my dog which is about the size of a coyote, and the coat was thick where the coyote is always scruffy.  I followed its nose to see where it was headed and spotted the second wolf.

Then I did what only a stupid human fueled by fear and lack of understanding would do, I opened the door and called - shrieked actually - my dog.  Dumb human.

This put her, the dog, on high alert.  The silent defensive position escalated to aggressive barking.  Realizing my foolish mistake I looked to the wolves.  They, thankfully, continued on their way, ignoring both the crazy woman and the protective dog who continued to stand her ground until the wolves were out of sight.

Warning, here comes the flight of fancy…..

I believe we humans can learn much from our supposedly inferior co-habitants on planet earth.  In this case the wolves, bigger and carrying a mythology of aggression, respected the small domesticated dog’s territory.  They moved at a pace that was neither fearful nor ferocious.  The dog stood her ground with confidence yet allowed the two to pass.

It was only I who made the mistake.  It was I who could have turned the situation into a conflict by my fear based intervention.

I believe there is a lesson that can be applied.  That peaceful co-existence is achieved by respecting the right of another to pass through on their journey without forgoing your own and to always ignore the mad woman on the porch.