Mirror Ghost

            “Here we are Miki,” Ilana smiles at me as she lets me out of the car. We’re at a new house, our new house. We’re moving here, with the guinea pigs, as soon as she fixes it up. I’m not sure why we have to leave Mom and Dad, but I guess that’s how human packs work.

            Ilana takes my leash and leads me into the house. It smells clean, dusty, and empty all at once. There’s hardly any furniture and no scrumptious cooking smell coming from the kitchen. It smells bare.

            “Isn’t it great?” Ilana asks me.

Even though I know she doesn’t expect an answer, I wag my tail.

“And you’re totally gonna love this! Come on.” She walks to the back of the house and I follow. She stops at two big windows and bends down to move a bar away from them. Then she grabs a handle on one of the giant windows and pulls. The window slides open. It’s a door! “Go on Miki. Go have some fun!”

            I stick my head into the fresh air in the back yard and test the breeze with my nose. I scan the whole yard and notice it has a tall wooden fence on all sides. Perfect! My yard, lots of privacy, and no leash! All at once I burst out of the house and run straight for the fence. I make an entire perimeter check and then rip race around and around and around. I feel like I’ll lift off the ground at any moment. I have never been this free.

Ilana did this just for me. She got me a safe yard because she knows I don’t really like to share. I know she gets frustrated with me when I tell yell at other dogs on walks and that’s why we can’t go to a ‘dog park’ for me to run around. I can’t help it if the other dogs won’t realize I’m the boss.

            I felt a little bad when I heard the trainer at school tell Ilana that I’m not allowed to come back until I get help from a specialized trainer. The specialized trainer came and couldn’t help with my ‘reactivity’ either. Ilana is very disappointed in me for that. She wanted to train a dog for therapy work. I’m a one person therapy dog. Not quite what she had in mind.

If she could understand me, maybe we could fix some things. Ilana is good at communicating with me, but not that good. I wish I could act the way Ilana wants me to around other dogs. I am very well behaved otherwise. I make extra sure of that. But when I see another dog, I just can’t help it.

            So now Ilana got me my own yard. I love love love her.

I run until my sides hurt and my tongue is almost touching the grass. Then I come in and sneak a kiss on Ilana’s leg in appreciation.

            “Gross! Mika quit it!” She pushes me away, but pats my side so I know she’s only half serious.

            “Roo roo roo!”

            “I have some work to do now Miki,” Ilana says. She goes into one of the rooms in the house and starts pulling up the floor. I’m not sure why she wants to take the carpet floor off. It’s much softer than the wood underneath. But I’m not sure why Ilana does a lot of the she things she does so I just add this to the list and start to explore.

            I’m tired from running. I decide to spend as much time on the soft floor as possible before Ilana gets rid of it all.

            I walk in to a room and lay down on the squishy, comfortable rug. It’s dark in here except for the light shining through the door from the big window-doors in the other room. I’m just settling down to nap when I see something move out of the corner of my eye.

Quick! I lift my head up and look at the wall.

Quick! Another dog lifts her head up and loos right at me!

It is not a wall. This room is bigger than I thought.

            I start to growl a warning. This is my house and my girl. The dog growls a warning back, but I can’t exactly hear her. I can see her lips curled back slightly and her face wrinkled up. She is mad. Her teeth flash just at the same time mine do. She is not backing down.

            I will not back down. This is my house and my girl and I am not a quitter. My ancestors were bred not to quit. Ever.

I jump to my feet.

The dog jumps to her feet.

I lunge toward her in hopes of scaring her off.

She is not scared. She lunges back.

“Enough,” I bark, “This is my house and my girl!”

“Enough,” she barks at the same time, “This is my house and my girl!”

“Liar!’ I rush at her. I am snarls and teeth. A minute ago I was exhausted from running, but now my energy is back. My fur stands on end. My muscles work to bring me into this dog, to stop her from taking my girl.

She rushes at me in the same instant. Ears pinned against her head, her fur too is standing straight.

We are about to meet. I open my mouth to get her ruff and bring her down.

SMACK.

I topple backwards. I feel like I hit a wall. I sit up and look at the dog. She is sitting up too. She is dizzy and confused too. She shakes her head as I shake mine.

Then we are up again and charging each other.

SMACK.

Again we are down. We sit up and bark in frustration. How can it be that we cannot touch each other? How is it that she is so real and yet it feels like I hit a wall when I rush her?

I decide to let her be for a while. I circle on the carpet and settle down again to take a nap. But then, from the corner of my eye I see movement.

I am up and alert. I stare across the room at the wall that is not a wall with the dog intruder. She stares at me. I feel her eyes boring into me. I snarl and bark and charge.

She mimics me. We are about to hit when SMACK. I topple backwards and sprawl on the carpet. The invisible wall!

“How is this happening?” I scream in frustration, “Why can’t I get to you?”

The dog commiserates with me.

“What’s wrong?” Ilana asks, coming to check on me. She stands in the doorway and looks at me. “What’s all this racket for?”

“Woo roo roo woof!” I tell her and then out of the corner of my eye, another movement.

I charge the dog as she charges me.

SMACK.

Ilana is laughing even before I hit the nonexistent wall.

I sit up and look at her, confused. This is no time to laugh! There is an intruder.

“Miki,” Ilana tries to control her laughter but she’s not quite successful. “That’s a mirror. The other dog is you.”

Me? How can that be?

Ilana turns the light on. “See?” She walks into the room and stands in front of the ‘mirror’. There is another Ilana standing next to the other dog!

Then she pets me. The other Ilana pets the other dog!

How can this be? Humans make strange things.

“It’s a reflection,” Ilana explains.

Reflection. Mirror. Her. Me.

I walk up to the other dog, the other me, and sniff. She smells hard and human made, not like dog. I lick the other me. She tastes cold.

I step back and look up at Ilana. “Okay?” she asks.

“Woof.”

Ilana turns the light off and goes back to doing pulling up the carpet in the room she came from.

I settle down for a nap but I sleep facing the ‘mirror’ this time. No corner-of-the-eye movements will happen this time.

This is my house and my girl and I never quit. Ever.