Morning Ritual

I have my own rituals each morning. Stretch, pee, drink water, shower, get dressed, read the paper while eating breakfast, brush teeth.

The dogs have their morning rituals, too. We start out the same: stretch, pee, drink water - and here is where the similarities end. From there, our morning paths diverge. Shasta goes back to bed, and Loki resumes her almost daily one-sided conversation with the squirrel.

It starts when Loki first steps outside. As soon as her paws hit the grass, the squirrel trills out a slew of insults before running up the tree. For nearly an hour, Loki will stand transfixed under the tree while the squirrel chatters and fusses, running up and down the bark - slowly inching towards Loki before wildly twitching his tail and scampering back up the tree.

When Loki is late in stepping outside, the squirrel will sit on the fencepost directly across from the front door and trill loudly.

Because this ritual happens nearly every single day, we have begun to think anthropologically - is it all a game?