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Like a Dog Catching a Car

Aaron Pace
5 min readJan 20, 2025

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Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

In recent years, I’ve traveled extensively to a neighboring state for work. I’ve often found myself in one particular rural area. A dirt road passes in front of a house situated atop a small rise. The home, apparently a farm hand house, is adorned with a somewhat dilapidated, white picket fence. Enough slats are missing from the fence that it’s not even an inconvenience for the dog in the yard to break through and chase every car that goes by.

I suppose there is some kind of thought process that goes on in dogs generally. Otherwise, why would one dog lay placidly on a porch and not raise its head when a car goes by and another will chase it with all the reckless abandon of a four year old in a Batman costume.

I’ve wondered, though. What would that dog do if it caught the car? There’s no part of the car’s exterior that is susceptible to a dog’s bite, no matter how hard. At best, if the dog managed to latch on somehow, it would get dragged down the dusty rural road. At worst, it would get pulled under the tires, never to chase another car again.

One dusty afternoon, while that dog chased my Honda CR-V down the road, I pondered the question: when am I like that dog?

That question sneaks up on me at odd times, like when I see people scrambling to try something new just because it’s new. A Dutch Bros coffee shop opened near my…

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Aaron Pace
Aaron Pace

Written by Aaron Pace

Married to my best friend. Father to five exuberant children. Fledgling entrepreneur. Writer. Software developer. Inventory management expert.

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