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Patient: n., bearing pains or trials calmly or without complaint

How patient are you? Can you truly live the old proverb, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again”? Well, there’s no doubt patience is a virtue. After all, it’s something everyone needs, especially me (and I want it now!)

But to tell you the truth, I learned this one from my dog.

Remember your favorite pet? (And please don’t tell me it was Lorraine, your pet Boa Constrictor!) Mine was a purebred Dachshund who my parents saddled with the rather audacious name of “Baron Fritz von Hruzek”. He was a short-haired breed, black but with tan feet, ears, and tail tip (similar to Otto, the dog pictured here).

Now, I truly loved that dog; he was my friend and companion from late Grade School through most of my High School years (sadly, he died when I was in 11^th grade). I always enjoyed reading a book for hours in a backyard chaise lounge, and Fritz had this habit of sitting in the chair with me, squeezing himself right up next to my legs. Yeah, Fritz and I, we were great buddies.

By far, my favorite memories of Fritz are about that time he and a big blue jay got into an argument about who really owned the back yard. (Blue jays, as you may know, are very territorial.) After this one moved in, he began systematically torturing Fritz with shrieks and screams; even swooping down on him.

But Fritz wasn’t intimidated. Many afternoons I watched him purposely position himself smack in the middle of the back yard, posing like a sortof doggy version of the Sphinx, just waiting for that silly blue jay to start his daily routine of pestering and harassment. As the bird swooped down on him, I could almost hear the characteristic sound of a WWII prop plane diving in for the attack. (Alas, I couldn’t find my photo of him sitting in the yard making like a statue, with the jay a blue blur right above him.)

Fritz would wait patiently with just his eyes moving, trying valiantly to draw a bead on that jay. Then, at the moment of closest approach, Fritz would suddenly turn and snap his jaws at him! Even though he invariably missed, I swear he could do this for hours. It was hilarious.

Ah, but you know where this is going, don’t you? One day when I came home from school, I went out to play with him for a bit before (ahem) dutifully doing my homework (and if you believe that, there’s some swamp land in Florida I want to sell you!)

There in the yard was a pile of blue feathers, all which remained of that ill-fated blue jay. That’s right, ladies and gentlemen, the bird had finally come just a tad too close, and Fritz’s hours of patience had finally paid off! Circle of life, and all that.

So, you’ve heard of the patience of Job, right? Well, how about the patience of… Fritz!

You know, it would just be absolutely finer than a frogs hair if you would subscribe to my RSS feed!