How much is that doggie in the window ....

I have never owned a dog.

Many of my friends do and I am struck by the affection they hold for their animals. I am struck too by the profound grief they feel at the loss of their pet.

What is it about dogs that make them the most human-like of all animals (apes included)? After all, your average dog is 99% wolf. It is essentially a pack animal. The task of the dog owner is to be leader of the pack

We humans have taken the wolf and domesticated it. We have bred and crafted an amazing variety of shapes and sizes of canines. And, I can’t help but feel, we have created them in our own image.

I guess that is part of the reason, they are so loved.

Here’s a poem read at a tangi recently for a beloved lost puppy.

“There is one best place to bury a dog.
 If you bury him in his spot, he will
come to you when you call – come to you

over the grim, dim frontier of death,

and down the well-remembered path,

and … to your side again. And though you call a dozen living

dogs to heel, they shall not growl at

him, nor resent his coming,

for he belongs there. People may scoff at you, who see

no lightest blade of grass bent by his footfall, who hear no wimper, people

who may never really have had a dog.

Smile at them, for you shall know

something that is hidden from them.”

One day I shall get a dog.