The Old Dog Story

By Rich Kozlovich

One of my regular readers is a retired scientist in Texas, Maury Siskel, who sends me stuff every day – all day.  Over the years he has sent me articles I’ve found very useful and I’ve either linked them or wrote articles based on those sent.  However, Maury also sends me stuff I find humorous such as this old story I’m going to share with you now, but with a twist at the end for some comments by me.  It goes like this:

A German Shepherd starts chasing rabbits and before long, discovers  that he's lost. Wandering about, he notices a panther heading rapidly in his direction with the intention of having lunch.The old German Shepherd thinks, "Oh, oh! I'm in deep crap now!" Noticing some bones on the ground close by, he immediately settles down  to chew on the bones with his back to the approaching cat. Just as the  panther is about to leap, the old German Shepherd exclaims loudly, "Boy, that was one delicious panther! I wonder if there are any more around here?"

Hearing this, the young panther halts his attack in mid-strike, a look of terror comes over him and he slinks away into the trees. "Whew!" says  the panther, "That was close! That old German Shepherd nearly had me!"  Meanwhile, a squirrel who had been watching the whole scene from a nearby tree figures he can put this knowledge to good use and trade it for protection from the panther. So, off he goes. The squirrel soon catches up with the panther, spills the beans and strikes a deal for himself with the panther. The young panther is furious at being made a fool of and says, "Here, squirrel, hop on my back and see what's going to happen to that conniving canine!"

Now, the old German Shepherd sees the panther coming with the squirrel on his back and thinks, "What am I going to do now?" But instead of running, the dog sits down with his back to his attackers, pretending he hasn't seen them yet, and just when they get close enough to hear, the old German Shepherd says... (This made me smile!)  "Where's that squirrel? I sent him off an hour ago to bring me another panther!"

Of course the moral of this story is “don’t mess with old dogs” because experience in life goes a long way, and since I'm an old dog - I really enjoyed this.  However, I did have a different take on this.  I saw this as a commentary on how people live their lives.  There are three characters here representing everyone - the predator, the backstabbing self serving traitor, and the potential victim. We’re all one of these characters – some are will always fit one of these profiles and some will do so occasionally.    Since it never occurs to me to attack others for my own personal gain, nor would I betray anyone for personal gain, I guess that makes me the potential victim.  Remember I said “potential” victim.  Amiability should not be viewed as a sign of weakness. 

 

The ones that bother me are those characterized by the squirrel. Why?  Because they're the one who undermines the stability of society.  Changing sides as it suits their personl needs and wants.  No integrity, no stable moral foundation, no vision, stands for nothing and has no concern for the damage their actions create.  Nothing positive comes from such ones.  Now the question: which are you?