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Mon | May 15, 2006

Dogs

The Britts next door got a dog. In about five months it quadrupled in size. The dog's name is "Amber" because of its reddish brown fur, but I think of it as "the dog."

A couple of weeks ago they had a black metal fence built around their backyard and now the dog capers outside all day, and seems at times to be eating the dirt.

When anyone appears, the dog barks incessantly. He doesn't stop until the person is gone. He doesn't even vary the way he barks. It's four staccato sixteenth notes, then two quarter notes. It's in three-four time, the four sixteenth notes in the first beat and the two quarter notes on the second and third downbeat. The first of the two quarter notes is staccato and the second is accented and forte. It goes mezzo forte, forte. Or perhaps mf, ff. That last beat is much louder than the first two.

There are no rests anywhere and the whole thing goes at an andante. It's in major key and one note, perhaps a high C.

At the panel about religion, during the PEN world voices "festival," a woman-- I think it must have been "Mary Gordon" because the only other woman there would not have had that voice-- said, "if we can't be pro-dog, what can we be?"

Everyone laughed. Civil white laughter. Now that I am thinking about it, I wonder if she intended a palindromic pun with god and dog, but I think she pretty much meant "no one agrees on religion, can't we at least agree we all like dogs?"

No we can't all like dogs. We can't all like either cats or dogs either. In response to the question "cat person or dog person" I say, "I dunno, cat sometimes, but not entirely, and dog in some ways too, but..."

Which is why I don't do well on textbook first dates.

Dogs represent a culture based on dominance and hierarchy. As part of training them, the owner must "show them who's boss" and be unwaveringly stern with the dog.

I like to give people chances, make exceptions, and be indulgent and forgiving. I want chances myself. I don't want a tug of war in which the other person just tries to get his or her way, and resolves conflict by being mean to you until you do what they want. Dog culture fosters this type of mentality.

Rather, that is the attitude towards dogs in the U.S. My dad looks at the dog and doesn't think of controlling or dominating it. He wants to give it the bones from dinner.

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