you're the man now, dog

Sunday, feb. 20, 2005   |   0 comments

You know how something exciting will happen to a dog (a cornered cat, a dead squirrel), and the spot where said excitement played out — such and such bush on such and such corner — will forevermore hold a deep and lasting enchantment for the dog? Which is weird, right, because it took a period of rewarding repetition before Pavlov’s dogs started salivating along with the bell. I don’t know, maybe if something is SUPER EXTRA EXCITING, the experience is powerful enough to permanently brand a dog’s brain after just one go-through. Of course as human observers, we laugh and marvel to see the dog race to the same exact bench under which a rotten hamburger was unearthed a full three years before. The idea that another rotten hamburger would find its way to that exact location just seems so cute, the plucky optimism of it.

But then who just caught herself circling back to the same Crossroads where once, two years ago, a fine jean jacket was purchased for just SEVEN DOLLARS? And then who went to the very same rack in the very same corner that the jean jacket had first been spotted, unreasonable hope swelling inside her that the perfect, panaceatic coat was sure to be found there, just as once it had been found before? Is one of us supposed to be a DOG in this scenario? I’m the dog? I’m the dog?