Pax and I are once again communicating pretty well, on the same page, enjoying each other's company. He is recovering from the gun trauma now that it is fading away, and he once again wants to walk and run and chase. I like having him back as a walking partner, and today we did the big loop for the first time in a long time. There were some loud bangs along the way as dump trucks slammed their tailgates, and construction workers discharged their air guns—but none of that mattered.

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Even better, I suggest that before you read the next story, you open your door and walk into the woods where only birds and spying raccoons might see you, or into a desert of lizards and jackrabbits, if that is what is at hand. Paw up the dirt and taste it on your lips. Drink out of a stream or from the lucid depths of a bedrock water hole. Return to your house, where this book waits on a table. Pull up a chair and see what other wild creature comes to speak with you.

Craig Childs, The Animal Dialogs