puppy, laser dots, and Marfa lights
Hi, everybody!
This morning when I opened our new stainless steel fridge, sunlight from the garden room struck its door and created a shimmering light against the cabinets. Of course, Buddy thought it was a Marfa light and went into alarm mode, barking furiously at it, tail vibrating at 500 rpm’s. This represents a conjunction, in his teeny little brain, between a red laser dot and any moving or flashing light source.
Let me explain.
When he was a young puppy we started playing with a laser beam that created a red light dot wherever we pointed it at the floor. Buddy adored it. He would chase it, bark, wag, look around for its next appearance, while we laughed and loved it. Then one day, several weeks later, when I turned the light off he came and jumped against my thigh and barked at me in a commanding voice. He apparently had figured out that somehow I made that red bug appear, and he wanted me to bring it back now! That’s when I realized that (a) the Dog Whisperer was right, Buddy was the alpha dog around here, and (b) he had become an addict. We put the laser pointer away for good.
Meantime, though, he had begun to associate all mysterious flashes of light as a Marfa light. (Marfa is a town in the Texas mountains where mysterious lights dance in the woods, and no one has been able to adequately explain them. We dubbed all sources of Buddy’s light-chasing obsession as Marfa lights.)
The most reliable Marfa light around our house is the flash of sunlight off a watch crystal. We’ll be setting up breakfast in the garden room, will accidentally move a wrist through a light beam, and WOW! Here we go. Buddy chases the flash of light across the floor, up walls, into the kitchen. If the light flashed off the ceiling, he’ll watch for it there, standing against the sideboard, his entire 20 inches of length straining to levitate and catch the light. He positively quivers with excitement.
That’s why I have taken to removing my watch before breakfast. So has Robert. Still, we never know when a sunbeam on a silver spoon or chrome coffee carafe will spawn a Marfa light.
And if there isn’t one currently, I believe Buddy hallucinates something else to confront. He’s like a little kid playing cowboys and Indians. Do all dogs to that? I’m a newbie at this.
It’s a small life but a merry one around here.
Cheers!
Roz
Tags: dogs, hallucinations, humor, laser pointer, Marfa lights, puppy
