This is Emily, who was called Alto, my precious little girl who deserved a better life than I gave her in my twenties. She curled up with me anyway, until I had to go away to New York City to claim a life and left her behind. She lived out her years in the ample lap of a friend of my mother, with another dog and plenty of love, while going blind and deaf. She was put down when the old woman died, I learned after the fact. It’s not worth touching up the debris on the shot. We lived a dirty, meager life. Might as well own it. (1987)