Pete watches the sky

Pete, our older Australian shepherd, watches the sky like no dog I’ve ever seen.

We think it may have something to do with the two occasions when he ran away as a young dog.

The first time was when he was left outside in a violent thunderstorm. The second time was when a beefwit neighbor shot a bottle rocket over his head.

I think those two experiences left him with the notion that the sky was trying to kill him.

So he scans the skies, especially on cloudless days, and gets very agitated when he notices jet contrails marking up his pristine sky. He runs back and forth in the yard, staring up and barking excitedly until the planes pass and the contrails fade.