Covered in Coffee and Dog Hair

Listening is a funny phenomenon, when does hearing become listening and vice versa. Those of us that can hear are aware of noises around them all the time, right now I can hear the extractor fan in the kitchen, the tapping of my fingers in a keyboard, the dog breathing in like a pig hunting for truffles scenting the neighbour having arrived home from work. I heard her car pull onto the drive, the odd crow’s squawk (bird not neighbour) and not much else. Your sat amongst friends and everyone is chatting and sharing, you can hear the words but when do you start to listen.

Take this dog, she loves a grocery delivery, a person captivated at the doorstep and being paid to stand there while her humans unload a multitude of goodies. For her that grocery delivery person is stood their with the sole responsibility of giving her attention while the normal humans are busy. Given the layout of our cul de sac they tend to reverse upto our door thus doggo associates the sound of reversing beeps to her getting a fleeting playmate. We also, for the past two years, have been fortunate enough to live next door to a building site where there are quite a few vehicles reversing around at will. I observed the dog one day be alerted to the reversing beeps, me being the universally intelligent human that I am knew I had not placed an order therefore it was not for her but she heard those beeps and then she listened. Poised at the front door, listening for the familiar clanks and shuffles her captive audience make before they greet her. To her disappointment those clanks never came no matter how much she waited and willed them she was resigned back to her sofa minus visitor tickles. It made me think when do we listen, really listen to the things around us and what we can hear.