The Dog Who Wants Nothing

 There is a rather odd brown dog in my neighborhood. Pretty much every day, he stops by my house on his way around here and there, and the odd thing about him is that he doesn't want anything. Many of the dogs stop by because they know I always have treats at hand, but this dog just walks in the house, walks right past me, pays no attention to my movement or my voice, looks around here and there, and then walks back out again. I've tried to give him a treat in the past, which he took, held in his mouth for a while, then dropped unchewed on the floor. Today I was sitting outside in the wall garden area when he walked in. He came directly to where I was sitting, never really looking at me in particular, pushed past my legs so that he could examine the narrow space of the wall garden, then simply turned and walked out the door again. He doesn't want to be talked to, he avoids being touched, he does not want a treat, he does not want anything at all. So why has he entered? That's what I don't get. Maybe he's a Republican. You know--nothing to see here, move on. 

Louis is scheduled to return to Bali next Wednesday, but is concerned that her flight may be cancelled, as Melbourne has once again locked down due COVID and it is uncertain whether they will reopen by Wednesday. Poor Louis has been stuck for one reason and another (for the most part due to COVID) for nearly a year in Australia and she is missing Bali pretty badly now, even though here the pandemic, compared to in Australia, is nothing short of rampant. 

I was talking to an old friend this morning, who owns one of the cafes on the beach, about the frequency of Australian lock downs. "If there are four cases, they lock down," he said. "Here in Bali you need four hundred." 

That's just about right, I reckon.