A Pleaser

He's a pleaser, as generous with affection 
as a long-standing friend - his "Yeah, I luv 
ya truly" lick's delivered enthusiastically in 
unrehearsed innocence whenever a hand 
or face comes within reach. It's like being 
discovered as a kid, joined immediately in 
a band of unselfconsciously like-types, an 
impressive recipe for belonging 

That’s the irony, he has chosen to be here 
rather than were he comes from - flattered 
as I am it doesn’t make us more secure - 
there’s lots of civilisation in this process, a 
wry way of saying we’re contributing to our 
own growth - which he is completing easily 
© 19 September, I. D. Carswell

‘Dusty’  arrived at his choice of hunting dog sanctuary two weeks ago; he isn’t 
the first of his ilk to doss down at The Orchard - it seems a well established 
precedent, but he is hardly a canine recalcitrant as much as a gregarious pup 
who is genuinely friendly. He has already charmed normally quite anti-dog 
neighbours such that they don’t ring the Dog Pound - instead they deliver him 
back to the Orchard. 

His owner is in the throes of finding him a new home - if Dusty doesn’t manage 
to do it for himself.