The Owner, obliviously munching on her half of the cheese scone was muttering about the Prime Minister and I was stalking. The squirrel was being extremely provocative. For a start it was on the ground, foraging for nuts. Secondly its tail was twitching. And thirdly it was flaunting its fluff […]
It seems that size and teeth are not necessarily related. The Owner says that any time a dog comes at me at twenty miles an hour snarling like a leopard whilst its Owner screams ‘Chiquitita!!! NO!!!,’ like that I should just lie on my back and play dead. I say […]
The Owner and I are somewhere new, and when we arrive it is very dark. Come on, Hergest, she says, time for a walk. I follow her into the night, across a meadow heady with fox, past bushes redolent with squirrel, to the side of a huge and gloriously scented […]
This morning whilst we were in the Park I found some excellent items scattered beside the rubbish bin. As a Moral Dog, fully aware of the necessity for recycling (because there is no Planet B) I rush forward to Do My Bit. I start on the pizza box. It is […]
The Owner has a stone in her boot. I wait patiently for my walk to continue as she sits shaking the boot, but she cannot find the stone. Was it ever really there? She asks. Could she have imagined it? I suggest that it doesn’t matter whether it was there […]
Today in the cafe the Owner tells Caspar’s Owner that I am making Good Progress. Caspar and I (alias Superdog and his Trust Sidekick, Fluffy) exchange knowing glances. Little Do They Know. Later the Owner and I take shelter from the rain in a cave inside a tree trunk. I […]
During our walk on the Heath today I find some truly excellent Fox Poo. It is ripe, and spreads particularly well. I roll in it enthusiastically, encouraging the Owner to do the same. Instead she tempts me, by deception, into a large puddle and proceeds to throw it all over […]
The Very Small Human comes to visit. It is small and giggly with ginger hair and it does not seem to fully speak Human. However, it speaks excellent Puppy. We spend the day running round and round the sofa. The small human has an inexhaustible wish to possess the bouncy […]
The Owner and the Man take me for a walk in Wales. It appears that, in Wales, water does not confine itself to taps and the sky, but runs along the ground in a bold and positively challenging manner. The Owner and the Man walk along beside this water. They […]
Jeremy Corbyn cycles past us on a bicycle when we are out walking, and I lurch after him eagerly, anxious to modify his trousers to the benefit of all. The lead restrains me and he sails by unaware. The Owner says that was a narrow escape. She says that I […]
We are walking down the road when I see it. A great, dark monster, strangely shaped and looming there, on the far wall. Silent, menacing, without eyes, without even scent, thrashing about in the wind. Malevolently it eyes us, and I stop. The Moral Dog would show caution and courage. […]
The Owner says Morality is an absolute which gives rise to certain rules. I say all rules are subject to context. Morality itself, I say, is contextual. Today is a case in point. It began as an ordinary day. The sun had risen, the birds were singing, the squirrels were […]
The Owner says that there is a crucial difference between accepting that all are equal, and being obliged to treat all equally. She says equality needs a perspective. It is possible, for example, to argue that all Moral Dogs are of Equal Moral Worth (fluffiness notwithstanding) and yet at the […]
I run freely through the park with Caspar, Lucifer with the nose cage, and Pedro with the floppy ears. We are wild and free, racing through grass, dashing through trees, attracting many other dogs as we pass. We are a tribe, a troup, a movement, spreading Philosophy to the Dog […]
There seems to be some confusion between the Moral Dog and the Ancestral Dog. The Ancestral Dog marks out his territory. That’s how other, slightly less moral, slightly more fluffy dogs know that it is his. Within this territory the Ancestral Dog defends his Ancestral Human against all comers. This […]
Hergest, a Hound's Philosophy 