Durant Diary: Entry #7

Durant is a man dog.

He minds his own business and never gets into scuffles with other dogs. He allows himself to be sniffed but doesn’t seek out sniffing.

He trots past conflict, often not even breaking his stride to see what’s happening.

He goes ahead on the trail quite a ways and then turns around to see where we are. Sometimes, he will make a loop so while we think he is ahead he will come up behind us and trot past. But he doesn’t make a big deal out of this. It just seems to have become his job. To know where we are.

Durant is affectionate but not needy. On these very cold mornings on our back porch, he’ll wait for me to feed the birds and then when I sit down, he’ll bury his head in my lap while I scratch his back. Then, when I decide my coffee’s getting cold, he backs up and goes down the porch stairs to the yard, usually going in his doghouse.

If we call him, he’ll come back but otherwise, he is just his man dog self.

When a visitor comes to sit in our kitchen, Durant studies him but doesn’t sniff or jump or bark. He watches the new person and then lays down on the rug next to us, alert but relaxed. He doesn’t go to sleep. He just keeps watch.

He’s a man dog. A really good one.