How much would you pay to force many people to look at and think about your dog?

Me and Bayou asleep, photographed by Abby.

Abby took a photo of me and Bayou this morning at Bernal Hill.

On Saturday, Nika, Abby, Five, Bayou, and I went to Tomales Bay to eat oysters and play in the sun. Above, Abs kills some apple cider just off of Highway One shortly before the dogs find a snake.

Bayou hurt her paw somewhere in the rivers of broken glass and chicken bones that San Francisco calls sidewalks, but Five seems to be feeling much better. Abby and I took them on limited adventures this weekend in the midst of Valentine’s Day celebrations.

And yes, Riaz: I want to be seen hatted or not at all from now on; this GPOYW is a first step in that campaign.

Bayou!

Abby and I bought some boiled crawfish from Mr. Lee at the corner store; we forgot ice cream, but remembered paper towels. With Bayou and Five, we went to the park around the corner, where we always go, and ate four of the six pounds, along with potatoes and corn. Abs even sucked the heads! I fed some of the feast to my dogs, including two cobs which they devoured whole. Then we lay in the grass and napped for a while, being kids and getting sunburned.

My relationship with Abby began when, because she couldn’t figure out how else to do it, she sent me a message on Flickr to ask if we could be pen pals. I have a difficult time with the material world, so since then I’ve only made her a few things, and even for Valentine’s Day she had to settle for flowers someone else made (which Syd helped order!).

Meanwhile, I’ve received scores of little things too amazing to believe, including a Christmas present I dearly love, too much to use: a tin filled with tiny cards, each bearing some phrase from our time together, some note, a drawing, and so on, like a card catalog of affectionate fragments. The idea is that I can open them when she’s not here, but I always worry that I’ll need them more someday, that I should save them.

For Valentine’s Day, she made me an adorable card with a fabric heart and a beautiful note on the back. It sits on my bedside table, with some moss, a cube of pyrite, little envelopes, and other gifts she’s sent.

“My dog barks some. Mentally you picture my dog, but I have not told you the type of dog which I have. Perhaps you even picture Toto, from The Wizard of Oz. But I warn you, my dog is always with me!”

And I will show you something different from either 
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you; 
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.

From this and that and Photophobia.

GPOYW: After I took this probably better photo, I took one with me and Five and Bayou -who is too blurred to detect clearly here- as well. I like to remember that they generally accompany me on these nighttime excursions, like incompetent and exuberant photographer’s assistants.

GPOYW. I and the windows behind me are reflected in Bayou’s eye while I take her picture; one can see her legs and body roughly as she does, splayed out before her (cropped from this).