So an interesting thing happened this past Sunday. The neighbors came over for drinks and they brought their youngest daughter who is 5.
Amelia is deathly afraid of dogs owing to a hard collision with a relative’s black lab that knocked the wind out of her when she was 3. So she sat on her mum’s lap and Winnie stayed in her bed. After a lot of convincing from her parents, Amelia agreed to try to pet Winnie, so she and very, very cautiously made their way over to Winnie. It took a lot of convincing.
Winnie read the situation well and didn’t move as Amelia finally started to pet her head. But then Amelia got excited and a little overconfident and, forgetting her fear, she stood up suddenly. And Whinny followed suit and stood up as well.
Well, a 5 year old and a greyhound are the same height so they met eye to eye and everyone froze, expecting a scream and all hell to break loose.
But it didn’t. Amelia looked at Whinny and stroked her head and they locked eyes. I was the closest to them and Amelia said the strangest thing then.
Without breaking eye contact with Whinny, Amelia whispered, “She’s wise.”
I was kind of stunned. It was said with an almost a prescient knowledge. Not the kind of thing I’d ever heard from a 5 year old.
They stayed there almost nose to nose with eyes locked and finally I recovered enough to say to Amelia, “How do you know that she’s wise?”
And she whispered again. “Her eyes. She sees everything. She’s wise.”
The adults, we just stood there. It took the air out of the room. So Amelia and Winnie are friends now, but what a thing that was. I don’t know if she knew what she was saying, but at the same time I think she meant it. It was strange.
