Vacillate

vacillate
verb, intransitive. To alternate or wager between different opinions or actions; to be indecisive.

We moved to the country confident that we had good neighbors who would be able and willing to help us with the transition. We were right. The Holleys even had a dog who was ready to befriend ours.

Bandit was a big, shaggy animal of uncertain lineage. He was curious and vigilant about new humans in his neighborhood, but never threatening. He would trot across the pasture and pay frequent visits to our house--one-eighth of a mile from his--if he knew we were home and outside. He enjoyed friendly attention and being scratched in those places that were difficult for him to reach.

Just before our first Christmas in our new home, my son and I came down the road one afternoon. I had made my final shopping trip before the holiday, then picked him up from school. As we passed the Holleys' driveway, Bandit bounded across the field toward our car. I slowed, as usual, but kept the car moving, knowing he would catch up with us at our house.

Then I noticed a UPS truck following us down the road. It turned into the Holleys' drive and continued toward their house.

Bandit paused and turned to look at the truck. He looked toward our car as I turned into our driveway, then looked back at the UPS vehicle. As I watched him vacillate, I could almost hear his thoughts:

"If I go visit the neighbors, they might pet me! ... But there's a stranger at my house!"

After a few more seconds, his sense of responsibility won out. He turned his back on us and ran to protect his humans' house from the UPS man.

Definitions adapted from The New Oxford American Dictionary, Oxford University Press, Inc., 2005 (eBook Edition, copyright 2008), and from Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam Company, Publishers, Springfield, Massachusetts, USA, 1965, depending on which is more convenient to hand.