The Bear Minimum

The Sydney Opera House was home to a new kind of music, earlier this month, at a concert for dogs.

I love good news. I read newspapers and watch the news and do take a peek at BBC News quite often, but far, far more often it’s bad news contained therein. In an attempt to gain a balance, a more even perspective of the world, I read multiple Happy News sites.

One story that stood out the other day was a concert specifically for dogs. The music had been written to appeal to a dog’s different hearing, sounding odd and at times high pitched to humans. The dogs all seemed to like it, yapping along at times, and there was actually no disagreements between the dogs (how surprising!) and the vet at the event only had to treat one animal who’s foot was a little sore after being stood on, but he was fine, apparently. The concert ran for about twenty minutes, and the music was written by Laurie Anderson and her husband, Lou Reed. Laurie said that the dogs appeared to ‘grooving along with it’.

I’m all for events that celebrate our furry friends, and would love to see similar events going on here in the UK, and something special for cats, too. My wife wouldn’t be happy if the cats didn’t get something special made for them, too.

I’ve always loved the sound of dogs or wolves howling; Since I was a child. There were a few dogs in my neighbourhood where I grew up, one of which must have been a very, very large dog for it had a very, very loud bark and howl. When that dog started to howl, many other dogs in the neighbourhood would start up with it, and there was a beautiful, if mournful, chorus of them. It was a haunting sound, one that seemed to fitting with a blustery moonlit night.