Like one who grabs a stray dog by the ears
    is someone who rushes into a quarrel not their own. ~ Proverbs 26:17 (NIV)

Honeybear loves me,
invites my petting him
by dancing at hand’s height.
He snuggles next to me at night,
scratches to remedy a door
between us, jumps ecstatically
to go out in the morning…
but when he has a burr in his ear
growls angrily at my attention to it.
Honeybear has never bit anybody
in the years we’ve had him.
I know he’ll growl, squirm,
fight the intrusion, but I trust him
not to bite. But a stray dog?
A dog you don’t know?
To grab the dog’s ears?
Much less to GRAB a stray dog
by the ears! Would you do that?
Would you presume to be involved
in a disagreement not your concern?
Would you borrow hostility?
Would you toss your serenity
to grab a stray dog by the ears?