First off, I don’t know the dog’s name. Ulysses was the name I had for him.
He, or maybe she, was the sort of dog I think of as a hound-dog: medium size, long legs. Bear in mind that I don’t know much about dog breeds.
I didn’t call him Ulysses for the way he looked, but for the way he acted.
That brings me to what’s still one of my favorite poems: Tennyson’s “Ulysses”.
The Sceptre, the Isle, and the Daily Grind
The title character’s chucking his family and civic responsibilities doesn’t seem admirable.
On the other hand, maybe turning the reins over to Telemachus was a win-win. At least for the folks who’d had Ulysses as their ruler.
Some folks are cut out for the daily grind of an administrator, others are like Ulysses. Tennyson’s title character looks at the good life he’s living, then at —
“…that untravell’d world, whose margin fades
For ever and for ever when I move….”
(“Ulysses ” , from “Poems”, Alfred Tennyson (1843) via Wikisource)
— and he wants something more than meetings, agendas, and the drudgery that comes with “the sceptre and the isle”.
I see his point, which is why I used a couple lines from the poem for my Facebook page’s header image.
“…this gray spirit yearning in desire
To follow knowledge, like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.…”
(“Ulysses ” , from “Poems”, Alfred Tennyson (1843) via Wikisource) (emphasis mine)
But that’s not why I thought “Ulysses” when I saw that dog.
A Happy Dog
This was back in my teens. My mother was spending time with my grandmother, her mother, at a nursing home, and that’s another topic. Several, actually. The point is that my folks and I were driving up and down North Broadway in Fargo quite a bit.
One of the houses we passed had an unremarkable front yard. Unremarkable, that is, apart from the dog enjoying its grass and sunshine.
That, by itself, wasn’t particularly remarkable either. Quite a few dogs will enjoy being outside, and stay within a specified territory: defined by the owners or the dogs, and I’m drifting off-topic again.
What set this dog apart from most were his back legs.
They may have started out matching his front pair. But by the time we were noticing him, they’d gotten stuck in a configuration that worked fine for sitting.
When the dog wanted to move, however, he didn’t walk or run: he bounded. Planting his front paws, he’d hop his back end forward, sit, and repeat.
His movements weren’t elegant, but he could make pretty good time: and didn’t seem a bit concerned about his alternatively-graceful gait. In fact, he seemed like a happy dog who enjoyed his time outside.
The way he worked around his immobile hindquarters reminded me of Ulysses in Tennyson’s poem:
“…Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”
(“Ulysses ” , from “Poems”, Alfred Tennyson (1843) via Wikisource) (emphasis mine)
Granted, I was assigning human qualities to an animal. Dogs aren’t people.
But I don’t see a problem with admiring his apparent determination “to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield”. And how, even with odd-looking hind legs, he enjoyed being a dog.
Just as I enjoyed being a human, despite having a defective hip joint. And that’s yet another topic.
More — mainly about animals, family, and coping with quirks:
- Family
- “Healing a Deaf Mute, Purpose, Families, and Celebrating Life”
Guest post: Father Greg Paffel (September 14, 2024) - “Cancer Followup Scan: Good News”
(August 20, 2024)
- “Healing a Deaf Mute, Purpose, Families, and Celebrating Life”
- Animals
- Coping, and living, with quirks
This got me thinking about how I overthink naming and how deciding to nickname every Pokemon I decided to keep in my personal roster in Pokemon Violet got me pushed to go simpler about the naming process. That, and I remembered a still living dog of ours who’s thin enough to have her spine visible. Also, I’m not really into dogs as much as I am into cats, but life has been helping me see their appeal further and further, with a recent instance of that being a YouTubed Shiba Inu named Kylo, whose owner does fascinatingly hilarious play-fights with.
😀 – Dogs do seem to be very good at entertaining us, and keeping us company. Considering how long we’ve had them around, that’s hardly surprising: and another topic. Cats: I’m rather partial to them, partly because they don’t give the impression of being so very dependent on us. Pokemon – Pokemons? – anyway, those I don’t know so much about. Naming things **is** fun, though. Probably due to something hardwired into us.