Safety Tidbits: 4-7

Don’t Panic – Stop, THINK and Act!
One day the old German Shepherd starts chasing rabbits and before long, discovers that he’s lost. Wandering about, he notices a panther heading rapidly in his direction with the intention of having lunch.

The old German Shepherd thinks, ‘Oh, oh! I’m in deep doo-doo now!’ Noticing some bones on the ground close by, he immediately settles down to chew on the bones with his back to the approaching cat. Just as the panther is about to leap, the old German Shepherd exclaims loudly, ‘Boy, that was one delicious panther! I wonder, if there are any more around here?’

Hearing this, the young panther halts his attack in mid-strike, a look of terror comes over him and he slinks away into the trees. ‘Whew!’ says the panther, ‘That was close! That old German Shepherd nearly had me!’

Meanwhile, a squirrel who had been watching the whole scene from a nearby tree, figures he can put this knowledge to good use and trade it for protection from the panther. So, off he goes, but the old German Shepherd sees him heading after the panther with great speed, and figures that something must be up.

The squirrel soon catches up with the panther, spills the beans and strikes a deal for himself with the panther.

The young panther is furious at being made a fool of and says, ‘Here, squirrel, hop on my back and see what’s going to happen to that conniving canine!

Now, the old German Shepherd sees the panther coming with the squirrel on his back and thinks, ‘What am I going to do now?’, but instead of running, the dog sits down with his back to his attackers, pretending he hasn’t seen them yet, and just when they get close enough to hear, the old German Shepherd says… ‘Where’s that squirrel? I sent him off an hour ago to bring me another panther!’

Whenever you find yourself in a bind, take time to focus on a viable solution rather than the problem at hand.  Remember there are multiple solutions to every problem.  Apply your God-given talent and your life’s experience and you’ll soon see that you have the answer you seek.  Life will throw you curve balls – sometimes you have to jump to the right other times to the left… and every once in a while, you’ll need to duck.

Watch out for the squirrels in your life! And remember with age comes wisdom – the old dog was able to avoid a potentially dangerous confrontation with his wit and wisdom.