![\"101\"](\"http:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/101.jpg\")
<\/a>easy question to answer on the page. \u00a0Much easier to answer on the couch or in the bed during our nap or outside working in the yard or when we come home and hear the baying the kitchen, the dogs having heard the garage door and the Rav4.<\/p>\nDogs are not surrogate children. \u00a0We don’t own them, even if we buy them. \u00a0Dogs are fellow travelers, pilgrims on the journey. \u00a0We love them, feed them, care for them, play with them, and grieve for their loss.<\/p>\n
They are companions. \u00a0Companions with a full and complete space of their own. \u00a0As dogs. \u00a0Not as replacements for something else, but as what they are, mammals like us, individuals like us, with a life to live, like us. \u00a0They agree in their big hearts to share their journey with us.<\/p>\n
We keep at least two dogs, preferably litter mates, for a simple reason. \u00a0We believe dogs need canine companionship and who better than a brother or a sister? \u00a0Actually, we know dogs need canine companionship. \u00a0That’s the definition of a pack. \u00a0It takes a pack to raise a puppy.<\/p>\n
Our days and our nights interlace, interweave. \u00a0I have my writing and my Latin. \u00a0Vega and Their outside world is largely opaque to us. \u00a0We let them out and they run, always run, to the sheds to look for critters. \u00a0Down the fenceline to greet or respond to other dogs. \u00a0Into the woods to find opossums or groundhogs or raccoons or, as twice this last summer, turtles. \u00a0We do human things inside. \u00a0They do dog things.<\/p>\n We come together for meals, for naps, for time on the couch or individual time. \u00a0We all seem to need it, from each other. \u00a0And, this is part of the magic of dogs, we seek it out Imbolc \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Valentine Moon Dogs. \u00a0A friend wondered why we keep so many. \u00a0And have done so … Continue reading Whole Cathedrals of Touching and Loving<\/span> <\/a>Rigel have holes to dig, rabbits to run to ground, each other to chase. \u00a0Gertie rolls in the snow, plays with stuffed gorillas and squirrels and cows, searches for food to steal.<\/p>\n<\/a>from each other. \u00a0A house with many dogs is a house filled with interaction, with a pat or a nuzzle or a lean or playful nip or a crisp bark that signals a need to go outside or a readiness to go to bed. \u00a0The web of these interactions, often brief, would make a thick matrix on any given day, horizontal pillars on any given week and, over the years, whole cathedrals of touching and loving. \u00a0Come to think of it, I think this is why we keep dogs. \u00a0And so many. \u00a0And have done for such a long time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"