The scientific name for ‘dog’ generally, specifically and more usually applied to domesticated dogs, is Canis Lupus Familiaris. I studied Latin at school, a long time ago. It’s usefulness has has been questionable, pub quizzes aside. The ability to understand the root of words in more modern languages hasn’t really done a great deal for me as far as I can recall. Maybe this is the exception in some strange way. I can see and understand the elements: Canis, carnivorous animal; Lupus, genetically aligned with wolves to some degree; Familiaris, connected or associated with family or household.

Living with KiKi these last months has reminded me that, like my partial understanding of Latin, I know little that is truly useful, and less than than I might ever have imagined, about dogs.

Martha bought me Stanley Coren’s book, “How Dogs Think”. Not the ‘How to . . . ‘ kind of book, but one which looks more dispassionately at how dogs minds actually work. Somewhere in the past Martha took a picture of me sitting on the floor in the apartment where we then lived, studying “How To Have An Obedient Dog” as a three month old Leica gleefully chewed the corners of the pages. This time around I’m going to have to try to be more disciplined in my education.