I am staying at the home of friends in Iowa City while "transitioning" into my new life here. My friend Gary has a large finished basement with ample guest quarters and I am living in pretty good style. But the funny thing is that Gary is a "dyed in the wool" fan of Ernest Hemingway’s works, and accordingly he has lots of animal heads mounted on his walls. There’s a Caribou "thing" above the sofa that my guide dog Vidal likes to talk to. I want to tell him that the Caribou won’t be talking back anytime soon, but then I remember that dogs can hear things the rest of us can’t. I wonder if the Caribou is saying: "Please, oh please for the love of God, just scratch my nose?" Surely this is why Vidal stops occasionally to bark at the thing?
S.K.
Planet of the Blind 