"It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog."

A few days ago I referenced Mark Twain's famous character Huck Finn while discussing my yearning for running free through the hills visible from my bedroom window. Coincidentally, the quote referenced above is also attributed to Twain and I've got another Twain quote in the pipeline for the summer solstice. You may be able to guess that one. So I proclaim this Rear Window's first ever theme week. Welcome to Mark Twain week! So here is a little episode I witnessed today that illustrates Twain's quote, "It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog."

This morning while I was stretching in the living room I saw a raven standing in the middle of the road below. It seemed a little unusual because I don’t usually see them there and he wasn’t really moving about. Just then, a barn swallow swooped down and back up and circled over him. Then this little barn swallow went into a straight dive bomb crashing onto the back of the raven like a kamikaze pilot. He fell to the road with a THUMP! I could hear it from two floors up but he apparently recovered and flew off. The raven, seeing this more or less as a minor annoyance also got up and flew away. 

Now I’m not an ornithologist or a biologist or even a smart person so it took me a second to realize why this swallow was attacking such a larger bird. There is a swallow nest in the carport across the street that this little guy was protecting. I don’t know if it was a male or female but today being Father’s Day I’d like to think it was the father protecting his home and family. So don’t forget to wish your dad a happy Father’s Day because he too probably sacrificed himself to protect you from the figurative raven in your life.