Getting Our Signals Straight

Lion likes things to be black and white. Now he can have that…well…red and green.

A few months ago I bought a stop/go sign. It was supposed to alert Lion to the status of our play. Since then I’ve committed to playing with him more often so I never used the sign. However, I was thinking this morning that Lion might get some use out of it.

He is officially laid off now. We have no idea when he’ll be back to work. Because his company is so big and employs so many people, there are a lot of moving parts. People can work from home in some departments. In others, there is high customer contact. Because of the uncertainty, and the fact that his vision is changing, Lion may not be as open to playing right now. I know what you’re thinking. It’s too bad if Lion doesn’t want to play. I make the decisions on how and when we play. I should just make him play. Uh-huh. Sure. If Mr. Weenie doesn’t want to play, there’s not much I can do about it. I can give it the old college try, but if he’s not cooperating we won’t be getting anywhere. Plus, life intrudes from time to time. You have to step back and let things play out.

Now I’m not saying punishments will be put on hold. If he does the crime, he has to do the time. This is something he can control. I don’t care how down in the dumps or depressed you are, you can’t go murder your neighbor because he’s playing hip hop at 8:30 in the morning. (The thought of our neighbors playing hip hop at any hour is amusing.) The rules will remain in full force unless something drastic changes.

What I’m proposing is that Lion use the stop/go sign to signal if he feels up for play. Under normal circumstances, I’d expect it to be solid green. Right now, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was more red than green. Of course, we can actually talk about whether or not he wants to play, but I thought the sign would be good to fall back on so there isn’t any confusion. Many times we’ve both thought the other was too tired to play when that wasn’t the case. It’s just a tool to make sure we’re on the same page.

2 Comments

    1. Thanks. It could be worse. I still get my benefits paid for and I will be brought back eventually (paws crossed).

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