Dogs love nothing more than to run and run, and too few dogs get the chance to do much of it in our tense and regulated culture. Out in the deep woods, there are paths and trails that run on out of sight, and it lifts my heart to see Fate and Red tear down these paths and run and run and run.

I looked up on one path – the dogs had raced each other, far out of our sight, and they were returning, as they always do, Fate in the led, as she always is, she is awfully fast, and Red keeping up, just a bit behind. The two of them seemed to explode out of the thick growth of ferns, running along a deer trail, and I just happened to have the camera in my hands, pointed the right way. I call this the joy of dogs.