All Dogs Fly...

The question came up, Do dogs fly? A silly question to say the least. Of course they do. All cats speak French, and all dogs fly. There is a commercial on the television that announces this fact. A dog is riding in the car. The voice over, clearly from the dogs view point, says the he (the dog) will always be happy as long as you (the driver) remember to roll down the window so he can pretend to fly. There you have it.
It is not so much as the dog actually takes flight. For him, it is enough to pretend. His mind creates a more fantastic flight than anyone could ever possibly achieve. Any little thing that can help this wondrous illusion along is just the icing on the top. I learned this from my own dog. Nero was not a fancy high profile kind of dog. Most of the time he spent just bumbling along. And he was happy to do so. A sweet natured dog. In his eyes, everyone was his friend. It was from him that I was fortunate enough to learn many secrets. Flying was just one of them.
For him, flying did not have to take place in a car. If he ran fast enough, his ears would flap about, and the air currents would do the rest. He loved to fly outside. He even tried to convince the butterflies that he was one of them. I think they actually believed him. Naturally they were to polite to comment on his lack of gracefulness, but they accepted him as he was.
Floating was another. One of his favorite things to do was to flip over onto his back. There he would be, upside down, feet in the air, tail stretched out. He would use his tail as a rudder. With it he could float in any direction. Sometimes, he would fall asleep while floating. You would hear the soft snoring which echoed the gentle burble of his stream. It made you want to join him.
Eventually, Nero found a companion with whom he could fly and float with. He found Archie, a small dog who had obviously had a rough start in life. Archie was unaware that he could float, let alone fly, so Nero took it upon himself to let Archie know that such things were possible. After sometime, Archie realized that it was perfectly acceptable for him to fly, and together he and Nero would spend hours doing just that.
In time we lost Nero, way too soon. Fortunately for us, he found us another dog to love and care for, one who needed us as much as we needed him. And thanks to Nero, we all can fly, just a little bit.

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Note: This was originally written in 2001. Nero died of Lymphoma April 9, 2001.