The dog jumped up inertly on the bed by the man, and stood waiting, to see if he would be wanted. The man looked at him, said nothing. Then lifted his hand and put it on the dog’s side. Inert, and like a Stoic, the dog put his nose to the man’s lips and smelled. The man did not move. Carefully, the dog lapped the lips, then softly nuzzled his nose between the lips again. Still, the man did not move, only smelled the nose of the dog back. They looked at each other. Finally dog lifted up and plopped himself over the man’s breast, against his breathing. He lay there, inert as ever.
The anger was long gone out of both of them, the well long since dried up. They had each of them resigned their position in life, man as homo sapiens, dog as homo canine, resigned, no more striving. And so a certain male sympathy was between them. Each as he breathed heard the deep breathing of the other