Mercury

This week, I had a chance to spend some time photographing Mercury, who you see here, and who is available for adoption at Austin Pets Alive! 

While I was crawling around with him, I got to thinking: I like being around dogs, in large part, because it makes me feel more readily the primal things within me. Those things that are animal about being human. All of the rolling around on the ground and getting filthy goes some way towards this, but watching a dog be an animal is what really brings this feeling to the surface. 

And that's where Mercury comes in. Mercury loves fetch. I mean really loves it. And fetch, to me, is such a beautiful thing because it is both one of the most seemingly domestic and ordinary things we do with dogs and at the same time one of the most instantly recognizable as instinctual. The thrill and necessity and drama of the chase, all bottled up neatly in a game.

Here is the photo essay Mercury and I made about our game of fetch. Followed by some info on how you can make Mercury yours and make yourself Mercury's. 

Mercury would love to come to your home and endearingly and incessantly request a good game of fetch.

You can see Mercury's page on the APA! website here: http://bit.ly/1OETQxL