I dreamt of my dog Maxx last night. I dreamt that he wasn’t really dead, just lost. And I dreamt that I found him, and that he was thin from being lost. But he still looked at me with those big brown eyes with all the love and devotion that anyone who has ever had a large affectionate dog knows. I called to him and he came with all the energy and exuberance that I remember him having in his younger years. And I remember his excitement to have found his home again. It was so vivid a dream that I had to think things through after I woke, to convince myself that he is indeed really gone.