Here is 'Sam' our farm dog, surviver of much disaster and injury, and always ready for a run in the country.

Below is a poem a student found on the Poetry Out Loud contest website that made me think of 'Sam,' of Kim and Patrick's 'Sadie,' and 'Duke.' Dogs are Zen masters...ecstatic in the present moment. I never thought of their barks as gongs, though. Hmmmm.....

Golden Retrievals
by Mark Doty

Fetch? Balls and sticks capture my attention
seconds at a time. Catch? I don’t think so.
Bunny, tumbling leaf, a squirrel who’s—oh
joy—actually scared. Sniff the wind, then

I’m off again: muck, pond, ditch, residue
of any thrillingly dead thing. And you?
Either you’re sunk in the past, half our walk,
thinking of what you never can bring back,

or else you’re off in some fog concerning
—tomorrow, is that what you call it? My work:
to unsnare time’s warp (and woof!), retrieving,
my haze-headed friend, you. This shining bark,

a Zen master’s bronzy gong, calls you here,
entirely, now: bow-wow, bow-wow, bow-wow.