Well she doesn’t howl at the moon. Dogs don’t partake in this nocturnal endeavor. In fact, either do wolves. They simply howl at night to signal each other when hunting. At least this is how I understand it. Dogs on the other hand, sleep through most nights. And most of the day for that matter. And they rarely howl. They do bark though. And Third Dog barks more regularly than either first or second dog ever did. Although with both of those dogs we may have been too caught up with our two kids to recognize a howling dog. Quite often one of the kids was howling. And if I remember correctly the dogs slept well and deep through all of it. Moon or no moon. Kids or no kids. Howl or no howl.

Dogs seem to bark most often at the presence of people. And in many cases the presence of other animals of any kind. Which leads me to believe that since the United States is abandoning our lunar space travel program, there’s little chance that any more moon-howling will be going on. Third Dog will have to be content to howl at kids riding by on bicycles; at skate boarders…and squirrels. I don’t know if there has ever been a dog that actually caught a squirrel or a rabbit, but as a witness to my own dog’s attempts to catch the critters I have to believe that fat chance is the appropriate analysis of the situation. The fact that a dog will bark first is a small but vivid insight into their character as I doubt there are many dogs that really want to catch these little woodland creatures and the best way to assure themselves that they won’t is to bark crazily in warning before they begin a frantic and fruitless trace. I think in the history of “dogdom”, dogs were once fierce and fearless hunters. But then so were men. And our evolution has been inexorably bound. Although dogs are still trained to hunt, they give over their catch, rather gently in most cases, to the hands of men.

But Third Dog bounds with startling determination after small prey. The amazing thing about Third Dog is that as soon as the chase is over, after a moment or two of sniffing the ground and looking, quite bewildered up into the canopy of the trees in which the hunted creature has vanished; the chase is over and I doubt that the pup has much memory of what it was that brought her hurtling across the yard with such strange and primitive abandon. The animal having vanished, why not lie upside down on the grass and scratch her back. The chase itself was executed with complete commitment and purpose. She just can’t remember what they might have been. And they’ll always be something else to chase.

The barking can be a good thing. Howling at the moon certainly has its place in the living of any life. And the chase…well, the chase is the thing isn’t it. And the catching is rarely as important as we thought it would be. Half the time we all forget exactly what it was we thought we were after. I think perhaps admiring the good ground, enjoying the canopy of the trees and moving on to the next pursuit with inspired determination may be the thing.

Howl or no howl.

Much has happened in the world of Third Dog.

She has gone to both school and work. With her searching eyes and endearing groan it grows more difficult to leave her alone at times. Since I am self-employed she has gone to work with me on several occasions and she achieves in my truck, a level of comfort never experienced by the first two dogs. Perhaps we were over-protective. Perhaps with two kids battling for dominance in the car we simply didn’t have the patience or the space. Third Dog, however, enjoys the ride. (more…)

She teaches us patience. Or rather, reminds us that it’s a virtue we’re supposed to possess and exercise. She teaches us how incredibly fascinating a rope can be when tethered to a tennis ball. She teaches us how difficult it is to be missing one sock out of every pair. She reminds us what unabated affection means and as much as we think she’ll run off to some primeval wild at the first opportunity, she reminds us of loyalty as she returns- in exhausted excitement – at the sound of our voices. She would like very much to join us at the kitchen table. It takes a great deal of our mealtime energy to dissuade her from this inclination.

The lessons we learn in life aren’t often clear and more often than not learned in retrospect like an ill-advised pass in the fourth quarter of a football game that’s now so clearly a terrible mistake. (more…)