The Howl in My Heart

Spreading the gospel of dog

Dear Reader,

Where there was once black and shiny fur around my dog’s almond-colored eyes, there are now white streaks painted on like spectacles. He will be 8 in January. This is hard for me to comprehend. I notice his age distinctly lately and not at all at other times, but when I took this picture, there it was, looking right back at me.

Slow Picture #8: Juneau on a walk getting a good boy treat.

I didn’t grow up with dogs, but I am a thousand percent converted to this way of life. When I moved to Nashville, some folks told me not to get one in case I went on tour. But, one night as I watched a Shovels and Rope documentary and saw how they slept in a van with two dogs in a Walmart parking lot, and I thought, no one could tell me otherwise. 

We got him when he was 8 weeks old from a local shelter in East Nashville. I remember seeing him sniff the perimeter of his foster’s parents backyard, avoiding his littermates, engrossed in aroma. They told us some dogs were more were more people-focused, some more dog-focused. Juneau seemed scent-obsessed. 

We decided to bring him and one of his brothers home for a playdate to see which might be the right fit. To my surprise, you can tell so much about a dog’s personality and temperament in their first few weeks of life, maybe like people too? As we sat in our living room with two sets of paws pattering around the apartment, Juneau looked up at me, yawned, and plopped on my foot for a nap, uninterested in the roughhouse emanating from his hyper bro. And that was it. Simpatico from the start. Two introverts in love.

A pre-Slow Picture #9, a younger Juneau on the deck.

Juneau loves to lay in the backyard, legs out behind him, frog-style, while the hot Tennessee sun beats down on his back. When I make coffee in the morning, he comes down the stairs, wagging his tail as if he’s never seen me before. He loves to drag us on walks to tree trunks and through tall grass. His favorite place to sleep is under the bed, in his dark dog den.

He is also a singer. Part husky, quite talkative, and communicates with full-body shakes and deep audible sighs. We say he has a big personality, but maybe I am so attuned to him at this point that he takes up space inside me without me thinking about it. Whenever I sit down to the piano to play, I look around to see where he is, hoping I can begin without the vocal warmups, yips, and yowls that eventually crescendo into howls. But after he gets out his initial two, he curls up, and lets out a sigh as if he has fulfilled his duty.

I once saw a video online that said black dogs come to your life for a reason. To take on your pain and help you heal. They are guides and companions able to take on the shadow realm. Every time I am sad or need comfort, Juneau seems to find me, leans his body against mine, and cranks his head up to stare into my eyes as if to say, it’s all going to be alright.

If you’re thinking of getting a dog, here’s your sign.

Till next time,

Nellen