Doing a Favor for My Dog

My favorite American writer of all time is Jim Harrison. He also happens to be the greatest American writer on the subject of dogs, even though he never wrote a book about dogs. In one of his novels, he wrote: “There is something about doing a favor for a dog that calms a person down.”

Very true.

In many of Harrison’s novels, characters cook and barbecue for their dogs, and I copied that practice with my three big dogs for almost two decades. I returned to it the other day by frying up a steak for Elmer, my new dog. He just sat obediently near the oven and watched me. I talked to him as I cooked. We discussed current affairs and the death of rock. I cut up one of the portions and served it with a little pumpkin puree. Elmer gobbled it down in fine style.

Just as Harrison wrote, I felt calm doing this favor for my dog. Calm is a wonderful way to feel, especially as American society does everything it can to undermine or eliminate altogether the ability to feel calm.