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A Dog’s Life
Nick Has Orange Knees
A boy, his tongue, and living the life anxious
Our dogs are Belgian Shepherds: Nick (pictured above) and Sasha, and I can’t claim to really understand either of them. They are a different species after all. (To be frank, I have so much trouble understanding humans I wonder if they’re my species either, but that’s another story.)
With Sasha, though, I feel like I have some sense of what she’s about. It is true that at least once a day I find myself asking her — yes, I talk to them, for which I make no apology — “OK, dog, what do you want?” But the basic outlines are clear: she is extremely concerned with all things food-related and an enthusiastic barker at anyone who comes to the door. The rest of her energy is allocated to the very serious and intense business of simply being Sasha, Conservatively Estimated To Be The World’s Best Dog.
Nick, on the other hand, is just weird.
For whatever reason he seems to experience the world through his tongue. Come to our house, you’re going to get licked, it’s how he rolls. It’s getting a little better with age; when he was young I sometimes wondered…
