Well, last week I talked about the need for manners, and Miss Manners is here to teach life lessons. After all, every animal teaches their young’uns to behave. bears cuff the cubs, deer thump impudent fawns, and I’ve watched the mares pin back their ears, with a face to strike fear, and threaten to kick their own colt!
But it seems people need to practice a little parenting and teach human young’uns manners, too. 
You may remember last year about this time, I told you about my summer visitors and my own lessons. We were visited by a relative who travels with a small animal rescue, so she brought a van full of old dogs and too many cats for the summer. 
They stayed down the road at the old house, but I had to go over there, displaying my best Heeler stalk, to keep every thing in order. 
You can read my report here: https://cowdogsadvice.com/2021/08/miss-manners-and-her-summer-company/
No traveling pet shows this here this summer, but I do have to contend with what appears to be a permanent addition to the extended family. 
Thank goodness she doesn’t live here all the time!
I’m talking about the new pup the daughter Jess and her family got. She is a small tan whirlwind, said to be Aussie and Corgi, so at least she has some cowdog smarts going for her. Somewhere she seems to have inherited a touch of Heeler hard-headedness, though. She runs way and refuses to come back! Otherwise, she is very smart and keeps Sprout running and playing most of the time. Her name is Chili Pepper and it suits her scrappy attitude for sure. About once a week, she brings chaos to my quiet foothills ranch.
Once in awhile, she sleeps!
I bark at her and snarl constantly when she comes in. To her credit, she simply rolls over, lays still and smiles at me, offering no resistance to the Heeler in charge. I do wag my tail the whole time and wouldn’t do anything to hurt her of course. I have even gifted her a new bone and some of my toys.
I’m too old, for one thing, to exert much energy into a fruitless fight. But what I am doing is teaching the pup respect and good manners. 
Already this little puppy has learned to sit, stay, shake paws, and lay down pretty fast. 
She knows what a snarl warning means. I think a human child should be able to pick up such basic manners early, too. Certainly they should know these basics by the time they start school.
The other side of teaching Chili this is kindness. Like a colt, she needs to know where the corral fence is. No one can stay in the boundary if they haven’t been taught where the fenceline is. But teach the truth in love. I try to be kind to her too, since getting by in the big world is a daunting task for a lone pup. Don’t guide with anger or frustration, but teach with kindness and an eye toward the kind of critter she needs to become.
We can’t all be Heelers, but each can aim for his own highest! 
So this year I have a summer visitor every week. 
Mercifully, she leaves and goes home in between.
The thing is, others move into our lives, sometimes temporarily and sometimes to stay. They crowd us, overlap our plans and disrupt our lives in good and bad ways. 
But then we have a chance to enrich our days and theirs, even if only in tolerance; we can share our wisdom, and pass on a little bit of goodness, making someone else’s life brighter.
Mostly, we can be kind.
Be ye kind one to another.
Ephesians 4:29
