The two years we lived in Washington, as I've said here before, were not the easiest two years for us. We missed the chukar hills, empathized with our dogs' longings for open hills of bunchgrass and sage, and just simply were unable to ignore the call to the hills. Local surrogates paled in comparison. When …
Legend
50 miles from home, I realized that I forgot to pack my extra shells for our hunting and camping trip. I sat there for a few minutes in the passenger seat in silence and mad at myself at my unthinkable mistake and embarrassed to say anything to Bob. I wanted to run off and hide. …
All Imperfect Things
I got a sick queasy feeling deep in my stomach as we detoured and drove into rural Council, Idaho. The curbside spot right out front of the local veterinary office was the exact spot where we'd parked the bright red Jeep two years before and it was empty and waiting for us. Just like the …
Saudades
One summer while home from college I waited tables at an Italian restaurant in Laguna Beach run by some racist Milanese who'd recently emigrated from apartheid South Africa. How they ended up in Laguna I'm not sure, but their attitudes about people struck me as not only offensive but ironic considering that the kitchen and …
Bloom One
Mr Leopold Bloom ate with relish the inner organs of beasts and fowls. -- James Joyce, Ulysses Related by blood both to Angus and Peat, Bloom, finally, like the spring, has arrived. It's amazing our capacity for forgetting. The sudden shift of frame a puppy brings: Peat's now the mature, even stately, one. I expected …

