Lola: Flies

I'd like to introduce you to the Incredible Flying Lola.  

Faster than a speeding bullet.
More powerful than a locomotive.
Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.
Not a bird! Nor a plane!  It's our Super Hound! 

Note:  this is not the typical positioning of her ears...

While you are contemplating the outstanding agility and overwhelming talent of this beautiful specimen, let me regale you with her latest endeavor.

Lola is part Beagle (note the cute face and floppy ears).  While we adored her upon sight, it's only been since getting to really know her that we've come to appreciate her unique talents.  Being part Hound, she loves to sniffle everything.  (Big surprise, right?)  I think she could find her way home from the moon if she had anything to scent along the way.

But it's the Shepherd part of her that is proving interesting.  Being a shepherd, Lola likes to herd things.  She likes to round up the toys, the boys, just about anything.  But I was surprised at her attentiveness to a new endeavor last night.

I watched Lola for several minutes last night.  Her behavior was curious, and I worried that her mental health was on the wane.  She wasn't chasing her tail (she hasn't one...).  She wasn't baying at the moon (she is more of the quiet Aussie temperament).   And yet, her actions were quite puzzling.  Lola was walking circles around the chair in my bedroom.  Around the chair, over the legs of the lamp, along the front of the chair, and back around to the corner.  Over and over she did this.  The only respite from this curiously circuitous course was a brief interlude during which she would gaze at the window.

After several minutes of this strange behavior, I understood what she was doing.  Lola was gazing, not at the window, but at a fly on the window.  And her repetitive path followed the fly from its landing spot on the window to its migratory finale at the light of the lamp.  I'm convinced that Lola thought she was herding the fly.  From the window to the lamp.  From the lamp to the window...  Around and around they went. 

I pondered the magnificence of this simple, yet concentrated effort.  I wish I could instill that same stick-to-it-ive-ness in my children when it comes to homework...