"...don't look for zebras!"
Doctors say this to remind themselves not to look for rare diseases just because a patient has strange symptoms. It's usually only a unusual manifestation of a familiar problem.
But, it's never wise to completely shut your mind to less-common possibilities!
A couple days ago, the Muskogee Phoenix of Oklahoma wrote about a women who was obviously trying too hard to see something different in her everyday life...
When Sharon McConough heard her dog barking like crazy, she thought she was dreaming when she looked outside.
Deer and raccoon regularly visit her Ranger Creek home east of Fort Gibson Dam, but she was shocked to see a zebra last Tuesday night....
“It was about midnight, and I’d just shut off my computer and I got up and went to look outside. It’s so weird, you can’t imagine what it’s like to look out a glass door and see a zebra trotting down the driveway.”
...Although she’s stayed up every night since, she hasn’t seen her striped visitor since his Tuesday visit. But she’s still on the watch and wonders how a zebra came to be running loose in her neighborhood.
Amazingly, she was right!
Norman the Zebra had escaped from a nearby ranch and was happily gallivanting around Sharon's yard, wrecking havoc with her sanity!
Norman's back home now, and Sharon has some great photos.
Just a quick reminder that the obvious answer is not always the right one.
After all, if Sharon had just assumed that the hoofbeats came from a horse, she wouldn't have such an interesting story to tell!
First Zebra: Philip Fourie
2nd Zebra: Norman by AP
I was waiting for the punch line. I figured Sharon had tipped back a couple! :)
Great analogy of something we all need to remember.
Drew
I love it when unexpected things like that happen though. Such a great way to remind people that they have to keep an open mind.
Posted by: Drew McLellan | September 24, 2007 at 11:30 PM