Lessons from My Dog

*Salvy had a vet who fat-shamed him. She pinched his (scant) blubber and made derogatory references to his overly-abundant dinners. Note: Salvy did not become defensive or aggrieved, and thus he reclaimed the power in this interaction.

If you are feeling compelled to react to something, consider the question: What would happen if I didn't react *at all* --? As Salvy has shown, total impassivity can be a Nancy Pelosi-esque badass gesture.

*After the fat-shaming, I sadistically altered Salvy's diet. The dinners were cut down dramatically. and Salvy didn't fucking care. He ate the smaller meals--and there wasn't groaning, there wasn't a sudden uptick in mood swings, there wasn't bargaining, there weren't "lapses." None of that.

*I was home alone last night in a thunderstorm, and Salvy offered a proper response to thunder after dark: total coolness. Salvy had not listened to any murder podcasts. He had not spent his weekend considering "the Atlanta Monster," a man who abducted and slaughtered approximately thirty African-American boys in the 1970s/80s.

A bit blase, Salvy curled into a ball on a small grey bed and pondered his stuffed beluga. The sun would come out eventually. He knew this.

That's what it means to be a dog.

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