I’m the first to notice something is wrong. Janie picks it up from my posture as I tense up. “Bo, what’s the matter?”

I leap off the trail and start running into the forest, dodging bushes and hopping over downed tree branches. The woods here have a good smell: pine trees; sun-baked dried leaves; the dark, rich earth underneath. But there is something on top of that, something invasive, that does not belong.

Sure I’m scared. I’m angry too. This is my woods, my home, my family. I cannot stay back and wait for this threat, whatever it is, to come to me.

In a small clearing I find it. Like a can of food, but bigger; and what’s inside does not smell like food at all. It smells like Not, like a big No to everything I know about. The big can has legs sticking out like a table’s into the ground. The big can is leaning over.

I stop a short distance away, not letting it out of my sight. The top of the can is opening by itself, just a little bit. Something feels its way out. Green and flat, like a long leaf. But moving, like a snake. This is the source of the smell. More leafsnakes poke out.

The top opens more and I see a head, like a big frog, but Not a frog, and the leafsnakes are part of it. I have not seen this animal before.

I start barking loudly. It makes a sound like an angry cat. I can hear Janie talking to someone who’s not there, but that’s normal. She’s a good person and it usually makes her happy.

I need to stay between this animal and Janie. It looks bigger than me. But if we have to fight, I will, even if I lose. I keep barking, to warn it off. Still, it is slowly climbing out. Cautious, like I am.

I’m hoping for a standoff, but the other animal keeps coming, and I can see there’s another one behind it. I’m barking as loud as I can. Janie could run away, but she’s still behind me.

There’s a truck in the distance, coming to a stop. Then some other people, running through the woods. And one more thing I’ve never seen before: a man pointing a stick at the can, and the stick sends a stream of not piss, but fire.

The green animals start screaming as they burn. The man keeps the stream of fire on them until we do not see anything moving. Another man throws snow on the fire, putting it out.

I don’t know the men, but one of them talks to Janie and they’re serious. He seems like a good man, I think, and then he turns to me and smiles. He says something more to Janie.

“Yes, he is a good boy,” Janie says, and pats my head.

It will take a while to calm down. But I’m happy again.