They can think about it whatever they like. But for more than half of my life have kept hunting dogs of different breeds, hunters of different game. Loving they may be. They might even beg a biscuit or roll over to be scratched. But some part of them is never quite a pet.
Some part is private and fiercely self-possessed.
So I do not resent the slight distance established between us by those cool, yellow eyes. Envy and also admiration. He devours the miles on legs that never fail. He bathes when it pleases him, and drinks what he likes without any bad effects. And afterward he sleeps until he wakes.