Integration

The other day we met at Regan’s house after dinner to work on a project. And I realized it was the first time I was going out anywhere after dark. My community is safe but there are no lights at night and the dogs get super territorial. And there are a lot of dogs. When I told my family I was going out they were fine with it but my mom made me a stick to hit the dogs with (she wrapped some plastic and tape around one end of a long stick to hold on to), which did not make me feel better. So I took my headlamp and my stick and Yaji and Carmita walked me down to the corner where I met Aaron and we walked around to Regan’s, all fine. On the way back I had to walk from Aaron’s house to my house by myself. (Aaron offered to walk me but I decided I needed to get over it and go alone.) So all was fine at first and the dogs for the most part just barked at me from their yards. But then when I got close to my house there were suddenly many dogs barking- I hadn’t realized my neighbors had so many- and they were coming out into the street and my dog was barking from my yard and I was really nervous that he wouldn’t recognize me. He’s a big dog, a mutt but looks mostly like a German shepherd. So I hurried up and got into my yard and started talking to him and he stopped barking and came over for me to pet him. I was so relieved. And the first thing that ran through my head was, my host dog recognizes me, this must be a big step in integration.