Today's Sunshine

Today on a walk we first met a moving van. It was backing out into the road right in front of us, on a steep hill, and then drove right past us. Meaning it was doing a lot of things Monster doesn't handle very well when it comes to cars. To begin with, it was rather large - that on its own can be enough to set Monster off. Secondly, it went from cold to running with us right there - also an almost certain trigger. Next, it was behaving erratically (going one way then another, stopping, starting, etc) - yet another thing to make Monster lose his mind. And the sharp incline and heavy load meant the driver was revving the engine quite a bit - in case you haven't yet spotted the pattern this is also a sure thing for Monster Madness.

I don't get it...? Are you questioning my sanity? Why?!?

But nothing happened. Monster did watch the truck rather curiously as it was passing (body slightly arched, ears forward, mouth nearly closed and so on), but made no attempt to kill neither me nor the truck!

Me? Kill???

But then! Another truck! This one a giant DHL trailer, turning onto the road far down the hill, meaning Monster had almost a minute of solid staring time! Considering whatever tension he'd already built up with the first truck, considering we'd only just started our walk so he was pretty wound up to begin with, considering there were cars parked in the road so the truck would have to pass us on our side of the road, and considering there is no chance we'd get lucky a second time, I started looking for a way out. Unfortunately there was a woman with a child approaching us from the side road and a couple with a dog coming up behind us. No way out! Since trucks are a lot harder to terrify than people and dogs, we kept walking - the lesser evil, you know. And Monster did fixate on the approaching truck (fortunately he hadn't spotted the other triggers), shortening his steps, closing his mouth, and raising his head. Uh-oh. And as the truck Monster tensed up, pulled forward - and took a step to the side, away from the truck, and calmly watched it pass! How awesome was that!?! Pretty awesome, people.

Uh-huh. First she insults me, then she compliments me. No wonder I'm all messed up.