June 10, 2007

The measure of a life, in dog days



Terrific essay by novelist Arthur Phillips in today's NY Times:

My little guy is growing up fast. He’s toilet-trained, he goes uncomplainingly to sleep and he no longer chews on his playmates’ faces until they bleed. He is 8 months old, and I know, years from now, that I will always remember this summer as the time he and I fell in love.

Between this summer and next, this latest beagle — the third of my adult life — will age from zero to 1 (or zero to 7), on a fast track to reduce me to mourning sometime in my early 50s.


Read the rest here. And Happy Birthday to Piper, in the photo above, who turned thirteen this weekend.

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