America, Wherefore Art Thou?

On the topic of dogs and joy

The joy of dogs. (Photo by K.Thalhofer via Getty Images)

Author’s Note: This is the first of an occasional series on America: What is it? Why is it? What do we love about it? This series strikes me as particularly necessary now, amid the dark and desperate emotions so many are feeling living in Trump’s version of America. Yes, many days it’s hard to find the joy; it’s hard to not be pulled down by the cruelty that defines our country with this hateful regime in power. But “America, Wherefore Art Thou?” will seek to let the light in by focusing on a wide variety of American culture and society. I hope you find these short pieces a source of nourishment that can help you keep your sanity and sustain your commitment to confronting this degrading regime.

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Today’s topic is motivated by my dog, Hazel, who turned nine years old today. Of course, it would be more accurate to refer to her as my family’s dog—our beagle who is at the center of family life and provides a nearly constant source of joy. Even when my daughters are far away, I am expected to provide frequent updates with photos and FaceTime viewings.

Here is Hazel at three months old, which is pretty close to peak cuteness:

And here is a more recent photo, ears grown out and cuteness still intact:

Dogs are the most popular pet in America. (Cats are the second most popular.) According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, there are 89.7 million dogs in our country, with 45.5 percent of U.S. households owning a dog. That’s 60 million households.

For anyone who’s owned a dog, the statistics only begin to capture the importance of dogs for their human families. As I’m typing this sentence, Hazel is curled up in her bed in my office, snoring rhythmically and keeping my blood pressure down. This birthday girl has been a frequent focus of conversation and photos today in phone calls and texting. I have pledged to take her for a good walk later this evening.

I have written about dogs a handful of times since I began publishing America, America in 2021. But what has particularly touched me and I think most readers is how important dogs were for President Biden and President Obama.

Here’s what Joe and Jill Biden said in a statement after their dog, Champ, died in June 2021: "Our hearts are heavy today as we let you know that our beloved German Shepherd, Champ, passed away peacefully at home…In our most joyful moments and in our most grief-stricken days, he was there with us, sensitive to our every unspoken feeling and emotion. We love our sweet, good boy and will miss him always."

As I noted in that day’s essay, “Kindness Is a Show of Strength”:

For any of us who have a dog or another beloved family pet, we can empathize with both the joy and the grief. The unconditional love of a family pet can be the glue that holds families together and softens life’s inevitable hardships.

But it’s the willingness to openly share these feelings that strikes such a chord after four years of a dog-less, pridefully cruel presence in the White House, one who expected praises for refusing to get a dog—he said it would be “phony”—and asked at a 2019 rally, “How would I look walking a dog on the White House lawn?”

In fact, Trump was the first White House occupant to not have a dog in over 120 years, which should have been a sufficiently vivid warning sign of his unfitness for leadership. The picking of dog-killing Kristi Noem as his Secretary of Homeland Security underscores the point.

But let’s not linger there. People like Trump and Noem are anathema to the tens of millions of dog-loving, dog-owning Americans.

Rather, let’s recall the Obama family’s beloved Bo, a Portuguese water dog that President Obama called “a constant, gentle presence in our lives.” When Bo died in May 2021—the month before the Biden family’s Champ—President Obama posted, “Today our family lost a true friend and loyal companion…happy to see us on our good days, our bad days, and everyday in between.”

President Obama greeting his dog Bo outside the Oval Office on March 15, 2012. (Photo by Martin H. Simon-Pool/Getty Images)..

Several days after Bo’s passing, Obama had more to say about his beloved pet, posting, “He tolerated all the fuss that came with being in the White House, had a big bark but no bite, loved to jump in the pool in the summer, was unflappable with children, lived for scraps around the dinner table, and had great hair.”

That’s a pretty strong testimonial for a dog thrown into the madness of the White House. And Bo’s owner’s loving memory is what any dog-owning family can relate to. As I noted at the time, Obama’s words in the face of Trump’s cruelty “read like tender mercies—reminders that leaders who model compassion and kindness are critical defenses against unbridled decline and a shameless rejection of our better angels.”

On behalf of all dogs, allow me to leave you with two more Hazel photos. The first is her most glamorous shot from several years ago. I may have been dazzled by her canine beauty, but she was simply luxuriating in the light. That’s the dog’s life, making their humans’ life better in the process.

And this last one was taken just minutes ago as Hazel beseeched me for one more bone, one more bit of food, one more treat for her day of days. How could I say no? She’s surely earned it.

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