LETTERS FROM HOME: WATCHING THE SKY FOR SQUIRRELS AND REVELATIONS

June 29, 2000

Dear Pat,

Humans dream of pennies falling from heaven. For dogs, the equivalent must be squirrels.

Hank had that lucky experience last weekend. He was hanging out in the back yard with DC and her father when a squirrel fell from the sky at his feet. A few moments later it was a dead squirrel, though Hank barked at the carcass another 10 minutes and wrung its neck again just to make sure the squirrel was not merely dead but positively, absolutely, undeniably and reliably dead.

DC thinks it strange, a squirrel falling out of a tree. I suggested this is how squirrels die of old age, not withering away in a knothole but like trapeze artists who've lost their timing. Send in the clowns.

Yet the world has a history of things unexplainably falling out of the sky. A meteor might have extinguished the dinosaurs. And how about the way Dorothy and her house rescued Oz from wicked witches.

Hank and Lucy love chasing squirrels. When we open the back door to let the dogs outside, they bolt for the side yard in hope of surprising one on the ground. Then they return to the back porch, wait until the squirrels return to their business and then make another run at them.

In four years, they had caught just one until the squirrel fell from the sky. How that must have stunned Hank, come like a revelation that maybe chasing squirrels isn't the only way to catch one.

Hank refused to let us have his mysterious squirrel.

He has our attention lately. Pouncing on squirrels is only natural, but when he bit a human being we took him to see an animal behaviorist in St. Louis.

After two hours of questioning us and observing Hank, she came to two conclusions. One, that Hank growls and barks at people because he senses that we have wanted his protection. Two: "He's a freaky dog."

One of the things we're supposed to do to modify Hank's behavior is to cover up the holes in our fence that let Hank see out and sometimes have allowed neighborhood kids to tease him. Plywood was being applied to the fence to protect the world from Hank and Hank from the world when the squirrel fell out of the sky and reminded us that security and safety and protection are all illusory. None of us can keep the world at bay for long.

Driving toward the town of Chaffee one afternoon earlier this week I noticed that a darkening cloud framed by my windshield had a tail that reached part way to the ground. There were no tornado warnings but it occurred to me that a tornado aloft probably would look a lot like that tail. I noticed that other drivers were looking at the cloud, too.

Gradually my road turned more southerly and the cloud moved easterly.

The town's emergency warning system was putting up a horrible wail when I arrived in Chaffee. Some people stood on the sidewalk scanning the clouds for the next big thing to fall from the sky.

Love, Sam