No, this isn t about owning a faithful dog. Dogs go out for a sniff around, and come back bearing ticks. Sometimes, on their prowls, they make the acquaintance of skunks, and return all fragrant from the encounter. Certain of my neighbors dogs have a penchant for barking at odd hours of the night, and for no discernible reason.
Dogs have to be walked, fed and occasionally bathed.
A mountain man s best friend is his pickup truck. I never owned a pickup before moving to the mountains, yet as soon as the papers were signed on our house, back in 1988, I felt this void in my life. I filled it with a 1985 Nissan King Cab. It s mostly brown, with what can only be described as a sort of sunburned hood. It has a moonroof, which a favorite niece of mine once tried to force open, leading to a permanent gap, and permanent leak, between the glass and the seal.