Dogs Welcome at Lake Berryessa
On a patio boat trip last week, I saw a jet ski with a dog riding on the front. It reminded me of our old dog, Koda. He was the best dog Evan and I ever had. He also loved riding on the front of a jet ski, in the front of our boat, and swimming in the middle of the lake with friends. Seeing the dog on the jet ski reminded me of passage from a thriller I just read: Dark Horse by Gregg Hurwitz – Orphan X series. The main character’s name, coincidentally, is Evan.
The Dog’s Perspective
"You? Talk something out emotionally?" She stiffened up and gave him Robot Arms and Robot Voice, one of her many preferred means of impersonating him. "Me am Orphan X. Me want to have conversation about feeling states of living organism. But me Cylon programming is not enabled to compute human eye juice."
"What's a Cylon?"
Robot Voice continued, "I lack knowledge of all things pop cultural. This is another infuriating trait that makes me feel superior to my human counterparts."
"Josephine."
At the sound of his voice, Dog the dog padded over into Joey's workstation and stuck his snout up into the frame. His big tail was wagging, audibly thwacking the curve of desk behind him. Joey scratched his scruff, her voice softening. "Who's a sweet boy? You want a bite?" She offered him the remaining half of her hot dog, which he scarfed down.
"You know," Evan said, "you don't have to feed him every time you eat."
She pinned him with a bruised expression. "See? That's so you. Not thinking about it from his perspective."
"The dog's perspective?"
"Yes! Think how friggin' pissed you'd be if someone ate all kinds of food in front of you and you had to eat the same canned crap over and over. Like, you have no opposable thumbs and can't get, like, your own food for yourself 'cuz you've been taken out of nature into a world of opposable-thumb privilege.
And this selfish a-hole buys whatever she wants and opens it up with, like, her superior digits, and it smells all delicious, and she can't even spare a scrap? Oh - and by the way, you bred me to be, like, super loving and loyal, I mean, I'm literally evolutionarily designed to have to be nice to you, like, it's in my DNA to not kill you and take your food, but hey, tough shit and just sit there and watch me eat, 'cuz, screw you, right? You want to raise a dog with dignity. Not just to obey. See, that's what you still don't get, X. Sometimes you have to take care of people the way they want to be taken care of."
"Dogs."
"Huh?"
"You mean dogs. Sometimes you have to take care of dogs the way they want to be taken care of."
"That's what I said.”
Big or small they’re welcome at Lake Berryessa
Can you see the little guy in the kayak below?
