During the time I spent in the US, either side of my father’s funeral, I would periodically send my wife photos I thought illustrated some poignant or absurd aspect of mortality – a deer eating someone’s graveside flower arrangement, say. And after an acknowledgment and a pause each time, I would receive a picture of a puppy in return.
I understand that it is common to send people pictures of puppies as a comfort in times of distress, but these were not random images of little dogs doing cute things harvested from the internet. These were pictures of quite specific puppies, and in a lot of the photos my wife was holding them.
