Sniffing

With his new summer haircut, Copper reminds me of a Park Avenue dowager, her thin frame decked out in pearls and an old Chanel suit. He's an older doggie now, but still has his pride and his passions, just as these old women do.

Most of all (and unlike them), he loves to sniff.

I've grown far more tolerant of the ambling pace that allows him to inhale all matter of olfactory delights: the soil, the weeds, the marks (and sometimes much more) left by other dogs.

As his hearing has fled and his strength has faded, sniffing is one of the pleasures that remains — and who am I to deprive him of it.