The dogs walked around the yard a bit, sniffed the balmy air and went back inside. It was dark. I couldn’t see my feet in the shadows. I stood there in the warm night letting my eyes adjust. A breeze came up. It blew thru the branches of the pine tree and made that lonesome [...]
Saturday, February 11, 2012
When we got out of the car, Trudy want into the house, and I went around the side to drop some bottles into the recycling bin. There was a hooting somewhere in the back. I mean a real hoo-hoo-hoo hooting. The kind of clichéd owl sound you might hear on a cartoon. I stood silently, listening [...]
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Up before the dawn, 4:00. They hop out of bed at my first request, not dallying as they so often do. They whisper encouraging words and rub my chin. I like it when they rub my chin. Walk in the backyard to potty. So many other things to do, and they let me do [...]
Saturday, November 19, 2011
When he proposed we adjourn, a collective sigh went up. It was late, and we had been stuck in one meeting followed by another. We were happy to be done and ready to go home. I hung up the phone and walked out of the study. Even the dogs were glad. When I appeared in the [...]
Friday, November 18, 2011
“What color leash do you want?” the salesman asked as he pointed to the spectrum of options arrayed on the wall. Izzy was wearing a pink sweater when we adopted her. And a pale pink collar. And moments before we had chosen a pink harness for when we take her walking. So I was having visions [...]
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Izzy and Magenta Monkey. One of the two of them is a new addition to the family. Guess which one.
He was sitting in the back of a 737 on the tarmac in Dallas waiting for boarding passengers to find their seats. It was raining. He gazed out the window and looked at the puddles of water under the wing and thought of the parched garden and the suffering trees back home. It had been [...]
Saturday, October 8, 2011
The fair and industrious Trudy is painting, again. One by one, the interior walls are falling to her brush. “Can you deal with Guinness?” she asked me. “He barking right in my ear while I paint.” So I called his name using the magic word “walk” and picked up his leash, and we headed out [...]
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
I saw you walking in the dark with your dog. I walked beside a fence with the baying neighborhood hound on the other side, and I was sure that you would hear the howling and turn to catch me following you. I saw you walking in the orange glow of the mercury vapor lamps at [...]
1. Morning In the cool of the morning, we went for a hike. Through a Juniper/Persimmon woods. Up and down, in and out of ravines. Following a well-marked trail. Trudy went first. Guinness followed with his tail wagging most of the time. I brought up the rear. By the end of three miles, the sun [...]
