"Your dog frees you from the relentless reflexivity that otherwise haunts your life in this mediated world. Above and beyond unflagging loyalty and affection, which are the most obvious gifts your dog brings to you; above and beyond the enthusiasm with which your dog greets you, or the way his features suffuse with expectation as — leashed, perhaps, to a parking meter — he waits for you to emerge from a store, waits for you and only you. For only you will do. The planet will not be balanced on its axis again until you return to his side.

But then, after a flurry of tail wagging and butt wiggling and ear flattening, how seamlessly your dog settles back into its normal groove, now that the natural order of things has been restored. No recriminations, no grudges, he trots beside you, or strains ahead at the leash — all in accordance with the inclination of the individual and the breed — sniffing at this and that, the past wiped away, the slate clean — and the future doesn't exist at all.

Your dog is always there in the moment, and you matter absolutely in its eyes. But beyond the simple transaction of affection that has always been essential to people's relationships with dogs, there's a new dimension. You cannot help but reciprocate their unconditional loyalty and affection — and, in so doing, you stumble into innocence yourself."

-Thomas de Zengotita