This is a picture that reminds me of our multi-dimensional existence.

What we have here with us today binds us to a relationship that last forever.

The beagle in the picture is D, my Love-child’s first dog. He was a contemplative kind. He did not care for chasing squirrels as other beagles do. If there were one thing that distracted him, it was his passion for food. He sometime went beyond a capacity of a beagle to get the object of desire in his mouth. With his companion beagle B, the duo scavenged food shelves for boxes of cereal and bags of dried fruits and nuts, and chewed them open to get to the contents. They once opened a jar of peanut butter and licked it off clean.

Besides the matters about food, D was generous towards life. He was self content, which was a natural result of unconditional love he received in his puppy days. He was rarely subjected to self doubt and jealousy. He did not have to prove himself. He just walked about the kitchen nonchalantly and if there is nothing that interests him, he took his usual seat at the couch and looked outside the window. On cold days he’d rather snuggle inside the house than go out for a walk. On good days he liked to sniff his favorite plants and carefully choose a spot to let out his waste.

D was an emblem of loyalty. His first love is for Aaron, his best-friend and the one who raised him. When Aaron was staying home in one afternoon sick with cold, D would not follow TH and me to go out for the usual walk. His legs became this solid rock planted deep in the ground. His neck muscles are dense and they can resist a hard pull from a leash. When he is determined he means it.

Love was already used to D’s barking sound before she was born having heard it daily through the uterine wall. From two weeks after birth she accompanied D’s afternoon walk. In her precarious waltz, she followed D’s lead. D did not speed up when Love was holding the leash. Love learned the smell of roses and lilies in summer. In winter she observed how D’s hot piss drills a hole in ten inch snow.

D taught me there is no need to hurry through life. You hold your ground and stay royal. Enjoy the grass of spring, love what you eat, and make new friends! Don’t overexert yourself but appreciate what you already have.

I will confess this: I am not a dog person. Having said it, I can tell you even a hard hearted being like me can recognize the dignity of a canine with ample time spent together. Every relationship has its own internal dynamic and a meaning that flows out of its nature. Between D and me, D was a giving one and I had been an oblivious preteen who makes mistakes in a friendship. Every time we met, he greeted me with a waggle inviting me to love him back, but he did not bother when I was not ready. He’d climb to his nest and close his eyes for his afternoon rest.