Hulk and Hound.

I was sitting on a bench today when a man walked past with a dog. The man was big and powerfully built, with a prominent beer belly which suggested a healthy, big man’s drinking habit. The dog was very small, very white, and very fluffy. It trotted along with head and tail held high, the latter appendage being much engaged in happy motion. And it carried a paper tissue in its mouth, just to add a touch of the surreal to a generally cheerful picture.

The man sat down on an adjacent bench, and so I watched them for a while. He paid no obvious attention to the dog, and yet there was something suggesting a sense of mutual comfort that existed between them. Maybe it was the way the dog sat proudly between the man’s feet, seeming to proclaim ‘This is my human and I’m quite happy that you should know it.’

I was left with the impression that the big man probably loved his little dog more than he loved most things, and I wondered whether he would stay true to his big man image if anything ill should befall it.