Here and There

In the middle of reading a decent article on canine cognition in Time, I realized one prominent factor that informs my love of dogs — I pretty much am one. Well, I’m pretty damn close.

It’s a long-running joke between my fiancée and me, that I’m a so-called slave to my libido. I always respond with, “Hey, in my mind, if you’re hungry, eat. If you’re tired, sleep.”

When I got to the part of the Time article in which the author lays out his theory of why dogs “kiss” their owners when the owners gets home, I was once again reminded of the program in a dog’s mind: eat, sleep, play. Eat, sleep, play. If a dog isn’t doing one of those, it’s doing one of the other two. Okay, okay, mating might make an appearance somewhere in the mix, as it would for us.

But that trinity sure does sound familiar. Instead of “play,” I spend a lot of time reading and writing. “Fucking off,” some might say. Fair enough. But I see similarities. When I’m reading, my body might be at rest, but my mind is “playing,” wandering through whatever thought topics I might be reading or thinking about.

And don’t even get me starting on eating and sleeping. Sometimes I think calling me a “slave” is being judicious.

Anyway, a pretty good read, especially if, like me, you consider yourself enough of a dog lover to be a bit of an animal yourself.

Photo: The canine who currently rules my world, Gida.

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