Hounds of Heaven News July 20, 2008

Zephan's Magic

Zephan is one of the Presidents' Day litter. He is the most friendly and goofy dog. The first thing we noticed was that he liked to collect pet rocks. He would bring in quite large rocks from his pen and play with them. We figured that was a little unusual, but not too weird. Then Zephan made friends with the neighbors' horse. The other dogs would go to the fence and run with the horse or bark at the horse, but Zephan would go and commune with the horse.

This was a little "different," but altogether a nice thing.

The next arrival that we noticed was Zephan's Bunny. At first the bunny would stay in the grass outside of Zephan's pen, but some weeks later the bunny would come inside of Zephan's pen to nibble on the clover. The bunny could have nibbled on the clover on the other side of the fence, but apparently the bunny preferred to be inside of Zephan's pen.

This is getting a little bit stranger, but wonderful.

Then there are the flowers. As do all the other dogs, Zephan has a gravel pen. There are flowers growing in his pen. None of the other dogs have flowers growing in their pens. We could disavow magic and just say that various wild birds have deposited the seeds. Of course, that raises the question of, "Why only in Zephan's pen ?"

Things got really strange last week when I noticed that there was a parakeet (budgie to non-U.S. people) sitting on the fence of Zephan's pen. Parakeets are not found in the wild in Michigan and we are told that their survival in the wild is measured in hours because of the hawks. But, there it was. The parakeet would move from one side of the pen to the other when Zephie tried to sniff it, but it stayed with Zephan. The parakeet allowed itself to be "captured" and now lives in a cage in the living room, with Zephie.

We live in the country and the realistic chances of this parakeet (who flies poorly) making it here are tiny. So how did Zephan conjure up a parakeet ? The only reasonable answer is Zephie's magic.

We can only wonder, "What is next !?"