Giovanni (foreground) and Hildegard at Fiesta Island

Famliaris as could ever be,
A hundred thousand years from lupus split,
Beloved canis, lying on my knee,
Whenever in my domicile I sit.

Your wee black nose, more sensitive than mine
A millionfold, and dichromatic vision,
Developed for the hunt, these days malign,
Most frequently to sirlion steaks and pigeons.

I know that the behaviors I adore
Are products of our long co-evolution,
Inherited from social carnivores,
To whom you seem a scruffy Liliputian.

And yet, I know I couldn’t ever choose
If asked to say whose nature nurtured whose.

Inspiration: Ode to Spot