It’s been a long, long time since I last allowed myself to get close to any dog. Once when I was a young boy rural Virginia and active in Cub Scouts, a large German Shepherd backed me up against a wall between two thick boxwood bushes at the house where our Cub Scout meeting took place. I stood perfectly still as the beast growled and snarled at me, his eyes leveled with my eyes. I knew if I ran or fought the dog would rip out my throat. After what seemed a long time, the dog finally backed away. Years later after it attacked other people, the dog was put down and killed. As a teenager on a farm out in the country who took on a few stray dogs as pets, I experienced my father shooting them dead as those dogs were also getting into people’s garbage and pooping in their yards. Two of my ex-wives had pet dogs, and my children considered the latter to be one of the family. I wouldn’t allow myself, however, to get close to them. I finally let go of such things with Soulo on this Journey to Ti’Swaq’,