safari ngema Kayak

sitting in the grass, enjoying the view, however it is my first chance to reflect on the recent tragedy, though expected, from home. kayak, one of our families two golden retrievers, bought when we moved into pinecrest road, had to be put to sleep. i dug through my boxes and found my hard drive, expecting to find my stores of family photos. alas, it seems they all disappeared into the ether when my last computer died, leaving me one lonely picture. it is unthinkable. they must surely be hidden on a disc somewhere. the hundreds of pictures of that well loved goofball must be somewhere. i couldn't bear it otherwise.

i just read a study in the times about dogs and empathy. for centuries dogs have held a special place in peoples' hearts and lives, but now they have quantified this connection between man and beast with a simple study of yawning. it seems dogs have the ability to empathize with humans, even strangers, proven by their ability to "catch" a yawn from humans.

for me kayak and his sister cody, whose grief cannot be imagined, will always be intwined with high school and home and durham and boone and friends and long weekends without parents, and jogging through duke forest--them pulling me along, then me pulling them--and lying on the floor, cuddled in fur, held close against loneliness, in silent understanding and love as only a dog knows how.