Today's dog! Learnings and Apologia

I'm not on hiatus but am taking the dog days of summer to its logical extreme. I'm going to focus on dogs I see and photograph in and around Manhattan's West Village. If I feel like writing about something else, I will. See you in September.

Well, shoot. The really interesting thing about this dog was how BIG he is (XXXL). I need to carry around some object that will serve to indicate the size of these creatures, as it's one attribute that would qualify a lucky canine to be part of this collection (others include odd heads, missing tails, exceedingly large ears, quirky, sad, gnarly, perplexed, bored, giddy or nonplussed expressions, big butts and funny feet). See, I'm not that picky. What will NOT qualify a given dog is "cuteness." That's what the interwebs are for. I'm all about interestingness.

Most people I accost for pictures are very, very nice. None of them so far have looked like their dogs (which is good). I try to project friendliness (easy) and dogged enthusiasm (easy) as well as a love of dogs (I like them okay). I never approach if a dog is doing his business -- and won't even wait for it to be over; I just move on and pretend that sort of thing just doesn't happen in a civilized society in the 21st century.

So far so good. The west side of Manhattan seems to have a preponderance of interesting dogs, which does reflect well on its renowned diversity.