It’s weird not having dogs.  After all these years we find ourselves without them.  It’s not all bad, we can leave town and walk around in our yard with less forethought.  It does mean that all the other dogs in our lives get extra love.  I reserve the right to hug on all the dogs we are lucky to know.  And I find it sweet that the lives of our dogs overlaps and intertwines with ours and the lives of our friends and family.

Dogs Gone By…

 

Dogs of Today…

I had a dog

who loved flowers.

Briskly she went

through the fields,

yet paused

for the honeysuckle

or the rose,

her dark head

and her wet nose

touching

the face

of every one

with its petals

of silk

with its fragrance

rising

into the air

where the bees,

their bodies

heavy with pollen

hovered-

and easily

she adored

every blossom

not in the serious

careful way

that we choose

this blossom or that blossom

the way we praise or don’t praise –

the way we love

or don’t love –

but the way

we long to be –

that happy

in the heaven of earth –

that wild, that loving.

-Mary Oliver

*we miss this kitty too

xo