Promises, promises

One night, while visiting my mom in Switzerland, and while The Ranting Economist slept, I browsed what seemed to be an infinite number of TV channels only to snuggle up to a program about working dogs on the tried and true European version of The Animal Channel. One of the dogs featured was a Bouvier des Flandres named Canaan shown working in a farm, coincidentally enough, in Simpsonville, SC, just forty miles from where we live. I fell hopelessly in love with this gentle giant. "Le lendemain", wanting to show the Bouvier to Curtis in order to add it to the long list of dogs I will adopt in my imaginary future, I logged on to search for more information on the breed.

In my research I found out from Wikipedia that the Bouvier des Flandres “possess sophisticated traits, such as complex control, intelligence, and accountability” and that “they are rational, gentle, loyal, and protective in nature”. I also discovered that Ronald Reagan had one named Lucky. Given that dogs seem to embody their owner’s personalities, Curtis found it telling that President Reagan would have chosen this particular breed; while I marveled at the fact that President Obama is still vacillating about what dog to get. One can only hope that he is better at keeping the promises he has made to the American people than he is at keeping the one he made to his daughters.