The Chocolate Lab is content to
sit and stare a the man, stare
into his eyes, actually; he
thinks dogs stare if they are
scared or apprehensive and just
want to keep and eye on another,
but this is different. This is
affection. He’d never known a
dog to do that; He thought it
wasn’t a dog thing and he knew
that people are never to stare
at a dog because the dog will
interpret that as aggression
and you don’t want a dog gett-
ing aggressive in return of that
stare, especially not a ninety-two
pounder, but the dog loves to
stare into the man’s eyes; the
dog has the biggest, most beautiful
brown eyes, and then the dog slowly
closes the lids and opens them again
in a sort of coquettish, come hither
way which the man knows the dog
doesn’t mean because that’s the man
anthropomorphizing the dog; he
thinks the dog is simply signaling
love; the dog is safe, secure,
appreciative and besides the man just
fed the dog dinner and then the dog
slides down to the floor, falls
asleep, breathes heavily
and snores.