Little Buddy

20210418 A1_01078 Boston-1.jpg

Toby asked where this came from and I told him it was in Boston. He said it looked pretty dark out and wondered why I didn’t get axe-murdered. I thought that was a pretty specific concern and asked him why he wondered that. He said he had heard about how the Indians had run around with axes and war paint and thrown a bunch of tea into the harbor and wondered if it had made the water taste good. I tried to explain that it wasn’t ‘Indians’ and how he was supposed to say Native Americans instead.

He said he was a miraculous talking dog and now I was going to criticize his choice of words? He was on a roll and wanted to know why they hated tea so much but then let me pass by unscalped. I told him it wasn’t ‘Indians’ but American Colonists dressed up like Indians and they liked tea but the didn’t like taxation without representation and in any event it happened almost 250 years ago. He said that was only about 30 in dog years and a few could still have been skulking around. ‘You better be more careful,’ he exclaimed, ‘if something happens to you who will put food in my bowl?’

I asked if he was interested in the photo itself. He drew himself up, thought for a moment and said, ‘Speaking for everyone, I’d have to say no, not really.’

A1, f/2.8, 1/30sec, iso3200


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