Instant Inspiration

From Kate’s Writing Crate…

          This morning, I let the dogs out to play in the yard. The youngest is eight months old and ready for anything. He starts each day racing out the door to scare any birds daring to stand on his lawn. He has no hope of catching them, he just loves the chase.

          When he stopped to watch proudly as the birds flew away, a medium-sized, mostly black butterfly fluttering off to his left caught his attention. Immediately, he gave chase.

          I thought the butterfly would soar away, but it stayed low zigging and zagging. The puppy ran, jumped, then pounced. I held my breath, but the butterfly stayed aloft. When it circled around, the puppy lost sight of it. Again I thought he would fly away, but the butterfly flew back to the puppy engaging him in another chase. He did this over and over again.

Was the butterfly playing or panicking or practicing his flying maneuvers?

For almost five minutes the two were unaware of anything but each other. The butterfly would travel about fifteen feet in one direction, then circle around and go in the opposite direction with the puppy frolicking behind him. The butterfly only flew over the fence when the other dogs tried to join the fun.

Back in the house, the dogs drank water and the puppy settled down for a nap. I settled down in front of my computer inspired to catch this unique interaction on the page.