When a dog is rolling in fresh-cut grass, the pleasure on her face is unmistakable. The words used to describe the emotion may be wrong, our vocabulary imprecise, the analogy imperfect, but there is also some deep similarity that escapes nobody. Sasha twirls around in delight, squealing and making extraordinary sounds. Dogs, we say, have no sense of time. As Robert Kirk of the Cornell Veterinary School once put it to me, dogs don't watch the clock.
Every minute is forever.
Everything is for good. Out means gone. In other words, when dogs do not behave as we do, we assume it to be irrational behavior. Another explanation for dogs' delight in our return may be found in the way in which puppies greet their mother. As soon as the mother appears, the puppies crowd around her, eager to nurse or expecting her to vomit food for them.