Dog Dreams, oil on canvas, 18×24
WHETHER IT IS TWO DEGREES outside or 92, my dog wants to run free. Days like yesterday she pays for it, but I waited until late afternoon to walk, and soaked her with the hose when we got back to help cool her down. She would not have it any other way.
With their relatively short lives, dogs act as though they cannot waste a single day, or any opportunity to relieve the boredom of domestication. One steady stream of intellectual and sensory sustenance is the daily walk, regardless of weather. Dogs dart quickly, eagerly, from item to item, on path after path, guided by their nose, eyes, and mouth, storing images like a photographer, or a botanist gathering rare specimens.
Back home, this dense rush of experiences can be unpacked and re-lived, savored and digested slowly, more filling than the best biscuit, twitching the mind and body during the long, lazy hours asleep on the living room rug.
