<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="width: auto;" class=""><tbody class=""><tr class=""><td valign="middle" class="td1"><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="t1" style="width: 540px;"><tbody class=""><tr class=""><td valign="middle" class="td2"><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span class="s1"><font size="4" class="">Before You Cut Loose,</font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><font size="4" class=""><br class=""></font></div></td><td valign="middle" class="td3"><font size="4" class=""><br class=""></font></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr><tr class=""><td valign="top" class="td1"><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="t1" style="width: 540px;"><tbody class=""></tbody></table><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="width: auto;" class=""><tbody class=""><tr class=""><td valign="middle" class="td4"><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span class="s1"><font size="4" class="">put dogs on the list </font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span class="s1"><font size="4" class="">of difficult things to lose. Those dogs ditched </font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span class="s1"><font size="4" class="">on the North York Moors or the Sussex Downs </font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span class="s1"><font size="4" class="">or hurled like bags of sand from rented cars </font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span class="s1"><font size="4" class="">have followed their noses to market towns </font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span class="s1"><font size="4" class="">and bounced like balls into their owners’ arms. </font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span class="s1"><font size="4" class="">I heard one story of a dog that swam </font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span class="s1"><font size="4" class="">to the English coast from the Isle of Man, </font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span class="s1"><font size="4" class="">and a dog that carried eggs and bacon </font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span class="s1"><font size="4" class="">and a morning paper from the village </font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span class="s1"><font size="4" class="">surfaced umpteen leagues and two years later, </font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span class="s1"><font size="4" class="">bacon eaten but the eggs unbroken, </font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span class="s1"><font size="4" class="">newsprint dry as tinder, to the letter. </font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span class="s1"><font size="4" class="">A dog might wander the width of the map </font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span class="s1"><font size="4" class="">to bury its head in its owner’s lap, </font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span class="s1"><font size="4" class="">crawl the last mile to dab a bleeding paw </font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span class="s1"><font size="4" class="">against its own front door. To die at home, </font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span class="s1"><font size="4" class="">a dog might walk its four legs to the bone. </font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span class="s1"><font size="4" class="">You can take off the tag and the collar </font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span class="s1"><font size="4" class="">but a dog wears one coat and one colour. </font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span class="s1"><font size="4" class="">A dog got rid of—that’s a dog for life. </font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span class="s1"><font size="4" class="">No dog howls like a dog kicked out at night. </font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span class="s1"><font size="4" class="">Try looking a dog like that in the eye.</font></span></div></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr><tr class=""><td valign="middle" class="td1"><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="t1" style="width: 540px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); widows: 1; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><tbody class=""><tr class=""><td valign="middle" class="td2"><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><font size="4" class=""><br class=""></font></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><font size="4" class=""><br class=""></font></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><font size="4" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Simon Armitage</font></div></td><td valign="middle" class="td3"><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><font size="4" class=""><span class="s1"></span><br class=""></font></div></td></tr></tbody></table><font size="4" class=""><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></font></td></tr></tbody></table><div class=""><br class=""></div></body></html>