We need to be careful around him when he’s like this, too, though he’s never bitten anyone seriously. If he thinks we’re attacking him or invading his personal space, he’ll immediately retaliate with growls or a violent bark and a snap at the air. Once he actually bit my shoes, as if even at the height of his atavistic passions, he’d felt somehow protective toward his owners and directed his fury somewhere he knew it wouldn’t do any harm.

I’m monumentally bored of talking about the dog. I feel as if my discourse has denatured completely, as if it’s lost its original form and rhythm and I’m now writing automatically, out of habit. But I haven’t forgotten what I’m trying to achieve, and I’m wondering if this boredom might be a necessary prelude to a surprise attack, the sudden capture of the discourse’s real content, which I’m still waiting to find. I don’t know. Or maybe, if I want to carry on writing, I should stop for a bit and wait for inspiration to strike.

*

Unlike what seems to happen with humans, being in heat sharpens the dog’s wits. For months, he refused with incredible stubbornness to learn, even by trial and error, that if he came into the house he’d be sent straight out to the courtyard, where his kennel is now, in disgrace. We’ve been doing this a few times a day for a very long time, and yet he’s only recently caught on.

He discovered he could get into the house the day after he learned how to use the gap in the fence, and what a discovery it was: finally he understood the relationship between the front and the back ends of the house, which it seems he’d previously thought were completely unconnected. Ever since then, it’s been his life’s ambition to get into the house and live with us inside it. There are a number of reasons why we can’t allow this, among them his habit of urinating in corners and on the legs of the furniture—no one house-trained him when he was young and it seems impossible to do it now. He’s also overly exuberant when welcoming visitors, and his impassioned displays of affection can get somewhat out of hand. With a few exceptions, he’s far too positive about everyone.