Poor Winston. It must be really hard to be a dog in this world with so much weird stuff going on. And now, as far as he can tell, an ailien ship has invaded the pond!

We got a solar powered pond filter and fountain for the back yard pond in order to try to save money on our power bill and be more environmentally friendly. It's too soon to tell how well the thing works - the sun hasn't been out once since we installed it. It DOES function though.

The item is about a foot square. It has two solar panels which basically float on top of the water and run the filter / fountain. The whole thing is encased in black plastic.

Like everything else that comes into the house, Winston gave it a good sniff when we unpacked it. It's not the filter itself that worries him. It's that it moves on the water. The dog doesn't understand the physics behind the wind moving the water and the water moving the filter. Hell, neither do I really, but I'm ahead of the dog in realizing that when it floats toward him it's not doing it deliberately.

Today was very windy so every time Winston went out to "use the yard" his attention was attracted by movement on the pond. He'd go over, have a look, cock his head back and forth then move forward for an investigative sniff. But then, of course it would start to move toward him. And since it doesn't look like anything he's ever seen before, and isn't wagging it's tail, smiling, or giving any other signel about it's intentions that's recognizable to him, he's mildly afraid of it. So he runs off, then tries to study it from a safe distance. There's nothing quite like seeing 185lb dog run from a 1 foot square pond filter, ears flapping, feet churning up the already alarmingly torn up lawn.

This went on ALL DAY LONG today, with no real progress except for that he stopped barking at it and we developed a lot more patience....because, of course, the invasion of the pond filter distracted him from his "purpose" every time he went out. He'd go out, look at the filter, run away, move cautiously forward, give it a "woof", run away, etc then decide he wanted to come in. In a few minutes it would occur to him that he still had to pee or whatever...and the whole routine started over.

I went over to try to take the filter out of the pond so he could sniff it again, watch me put it back in the water, and all of that thinking that would solve the problem. Naturally, just then the wind kicked up especially fiercely, blowing the filter out of my reach. I did a spectacularly stupid "overbalence dance" which only confused the dog further, but did manage to NOT fall into the pond ( I think I can credit the chiropractor there. I'm sure last week I'd have fallen in)

I have no idea how long it will take him to get used to the pond filter. But at least he's paying attention. He's got a dog's life!