Lake Cheston ABCedarian: R

R is for REFLECTION, RELATIONSHIPS, and REVERENCE

Dogs Again

Jill's puppies have grown and are growing. Today, with a small group of chatting women gathered around the table, Rocky and Liza played and bared teeth and growled and chewed an old clog and slept.
I could be a dog person and here's another reason why.

"Golden Retrievals"

Fetch? Balls and sticks capture my attention
seconds at a time. Catch? I don't think so.
Bunny, tumbling leaf, a squirrel who's -- oh
joy -- actually scared. Sniff the wind, then

I'm off again: muck, pond, ditch, residue
of any thrillingly dead thing. And you?
Either you're sunk in the past, half our walk,
thinking of what you can never bring back,

or else you're off in some fog concerning
-- tomorrow, is that what you call it? My work:
to unsnare time's warp (and woof!), retrieving,
my haze-headed friend, you. This shining bark,

a Zen master's bronzy gong, calls you here,
entirely, now: bow-wow, bow-wow, bow-wow.

by Mark Doty

Their Lucky Day

These three little mutts made the news yesterday and stole my friend Jill's heart. The community email listed four puppies and one mama dog had been found. A student is seeing to the mama and one puppy, having enclosed them in a campus garden behind deer fencing. These three, however, were left to fend for themselves until Jill and her husband took them. They are now comfortably housed in their garden and have been treated by the local house-calls vet.

Living in a community that advertises runaway and tossed-away dogs, old Macs free to the first-taker, chicken controversies (http://savesewaneechickens.blogspot.com/), citizens' health challenges, and the like is a refreshing change for a person raised in the city.

I am reminded that every dog has its day. Let's just hope some big-hearted folks at tomorrow's annual dog show will give these dogs their hearts.