Cats and Dogs
The dog is hesitating. He has just bombed down the stairs, screeched towards the door with clicking claws and when I open it wide in front of his nose, he comes to a full stop.
He is looking up and down the road, first left, then right. His nose takes a deep breath, sucking in all the information outside: it hasn’t rained for quite a while. Now the rain has washed out a slippery substance from the tarmac and the cars go by with a smacking sound.
The smell of dust baked in a long week of heat and sunshine and then dissolved into heavy and fresh rain is right in front of his nose, I can almost see it hovering there. All the energy that threw him down the stairs has been shoved into the tip of his nose and stops him like a cartoon character.
Normally he would run out the door, looking over his hairy shoulder after 20 meters to make sure I was following him heading for the park.
Not now.
He looks at me sceptically, still standing in the open doorway.
Dogs are rarely ambivalent. Decisions in the dog-world are being made within seconds, sniffing, running, eating, barking, escaping, fighting, racing after a cat.
A dog will only be sceptical in the rain. Even when we walk towards the park, finally, he hunches his shoulders as if he could avoid getting wet. He looks grumpy. Rain makes him hesitant. He hesitates, dithers, thinks. A thinking dog in the rain.
protection is everything (overstock.com)
puppy in the rain | floor plan | top
