Dancing with myself

Dolly followed me down to the creek this afternoon. She played on the sandbar while I took a few pictures of the bridge and the bank. While we were wading around, we found an abandoned turtle shell. I added it to our collection of creek bank treasures and we headed up the hill to the secret garden.
Later on after I'd finished cleaning out the car and the lottery storage, I relaxed in the garden with Grimm's Complete Fairy Tales. (I even plugged in the water fountain being in the new found spring spirit!) I looked down the hill and Dolly was creeping by the barn, keeping her eyes focused on the turtle shell that hung on the door. She tiptoed up to the door and pounced--then scampered off, as if she had been frightened by the empty shell. She eventually returned and settled in on the grass in front of the barn and kept a close watch over the shell for the rest of the afternoon.
We've come to this conclusion: after retrieving the shell from the creek, we forgot to pick up its spirit. The turtle spirit was enraged that we had left it behind in the murky creek water so we believe that after a flustered attempt to climb the steep hill to the garden, the spirit conjured up all its remaining energy to bark at Dolly as she attempted to steal the shell off the door.
Dogs are funny creatures...all animals really--they talk to each other, even if they are spirits.
WHERE THE GREEN TURTLE SHELL GROWS~

I need a photo opportunity
I want a shot at redemption
Don’t want to end up a cartoon
In a cartoon graveyard
Bone-digger, bone-digger
Dogs in the moonlight
Far away my well-lit door
--Paul Simon