dogs

Dog Time

John Lane — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 09:57:15 -0400

This morning I slept later than I usually do, and I'm in a little bit of a panic. My alarm clock is gone. I've always had a dog to get me up, and I've written this column on dog time every Monday. But a little over a week ago Toby's cancer got the better of him. He was almost 13, and that's a lot of dog years. Now he's gone, our house is dogless, and I'm sleeping later.

Toby's Golden Years

John Lane — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 07:10:38 -0400

This spring our dog Toby's been suffering from senior moments. He is a middle-sized beagle mix, but he used to jump like an Olympian into the truck or onto the bed or couch.

Now his face is grey, he sleeps fitfully, and his back end is so stiff that he has to use doggy steps to reach the soft places he prefers.

Doggie Dove Bars

John Lane — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 14:01:10 -0400

Our dog Toby has been eating cicadas the last few weeks. I limit him to three a day, though if I let him run free and wild amid the arboreal buffet I think he'd top that in a few seconds.

You've all heard the cicadas. It's our signature summer sound in the South. If you have hardwood trees you can hear them rasping in waves. It's a sharp, rolling, rusty sound. The woods around our house are rich with them, rich in sound—and calories.

Into the Wild

John Lane — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 05:52:04 -0500

Every morning at 8 A.M. our dog Toby gets off the couch and starts bugging me to go out. He's a creature of habit, and our habit, rain or shine, is to take a ritual morning walk.

"Into the wild," I always joke as I head out the side door. Our walk is "off-road" on a narrow trail. I guess it's a little less than a mile. Though not a trip into the Alaska back country or even the Chattooga Wild and Scenic River Corridor, our morning walk is often the wildest portion of a normal day. The weather is out of my control, the footing is a little uncertain, and turns in the trail are full of surprise and delight if I pay attention.