Dog Day in January

Posted on January 5, 2005 in Neighborhood

Today was a day for old dogs. As I drove up Modjeska Canyon Road, I saw them trotting out of their yards. White cataracts filled their eyes: the back legs of a basset hound were bent and tortured. A shar pei backed himself into a hillside and watched me in shamed silence as my truck passed. There were border collies running in green pastures among horses. And one samoyed ambled alongside his blonde mistress, tied to her by a red whip of a leash. It was a day for old dogs who had slept too long, listened too long to the rain and the hail pebbling puddles on the roofs of the houses.