Lope

MTT With his dog Nissei in Buffalo. Photo: Betty Walsh

“Lope was inspired by a lifetime of living with dogs. They always sense when it’s time to go for a walk. They start paying close attention the moment I get up from my desk or my piano. As I walk around gathering layers of clothes, shoes, leashes and poop bags they give out little yips and yelps of mounting excitement. The dogs think, ‘Why can’t the humans just leave the house? But no, they always have to put on something else and go back and find something. And what are all these odd cold objects they’re always carrying around, anyway?’

At last, we’re all outside. From now on, the experience is one for the humans and a very different one for the dogs. From the moment we’re out the door, the dogs are in a world of smells and sounds and textures and eddies, worlds which the people mostly don’t get. Our common stride or lope moves us all along. Together, fleeting impressions come and go. In people’s minds are bits of songs, dances, memories. The dogs hear exciting perky bursts of sounds and then completely lose themselves in the profound pungencies that are at every turn.

Somewhere along the way there is a bench or log to sit on to feel the air, admire the view and ponder as, off leash, the pups quietly cruise the mysteries of the immediate territory. It’s time for joyous sprinting and fetching, enjoying the rushing apart and coming back together.

Just when it’s really getting to be fun, wouldn’t you know it. The humans remember something they have to do, or study, or practice, and it’s time to head home, still with plenty of mystery to revel in before the last bark.”

—Michael Tilson Thomas