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.
Poet, Essayist, Blogger, Journalist, Memoirist, Disability Rights Advocate, Public Speaker, Professor, Syracuse University