OLIVER

  Oliver is my dog and he decides who lives and who dies.He is a Democrat.You say this is impossible to know but you didn't see the way he looked at me when he overheard me tell Sam [ our twenty three year old ] that I voted for George Bush senior the first time Clinton ran for president..It filled me with dread, and an adhesive, ever present,sense of menace.Surely that fear was worse than the fear of death itself.He's an Australian Shepard so you know he's intelligent, authentic, and intellectually highly evolved.
  He's not mean!I yelled at him one time when I was sick and he was just so sad.The thing about Oliver is this ; he has a very keen sense of justice.American justice ,like only a dog can have.Poor people are nice and when he sees someone who is underprivileged,under-represented,underfed,even underwear-less he cocks his head,pushes out his tongue, and smiles his most disarming doggy smile just for them.
  His sense of moral outrage is due ,no doubt, to abuse he suffered as a baby dog.After arranging his adoption we rushed to his puppy bed but  arrived too late. "The Man" had hurt him,cut him,cut off his puppy tail before we could intervene.You see he knows  what it means to suffer at the hands of "the Man".To be stripped of an essential part of yourself and to bear that mark of Cain til the day you die.Straight up pain dog.
   He is the the only one awake when I get home from my chef job.I bring us wood-fired peanut butter pizza and we watch c-span.He doesn't hate Sen. Cornyn. He yawns at this reptile telling lies and plotting to take even more from the weakest among us.A haircut that masquerades as a human being."A haircut,very clever Ollie" I say.
    Oliver dreams of vengeance.Vengeance for all the disenfranchised animals of this world.Delivered light on its feet with a cool, deadly quickness.In winter,in broad,icy daylight..
   "Who's a good boy, who's a good boy.It's beddy bye time".Your day will come Oliver.When you're just a little bigger-a little stronger. Yeeaas it weeaal ".

  Happy Birthday Ollie