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Summary Of How To Touch A Bleeding Dog

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Love can often cause people to adjust their lifestyle to another person’s. How to Touch a Bleeding Dog shows how a guy who once had a wife that he loved took care of one of her most precious possessions. It’s safe to say the average human being doesn’t have to have mutual friendship (a human) with the dog in order to like him/her. In this case however the main character from this short story says that the dog is not his, but is his responsibility. This responsibility seemed to fall to him due to the passing of his wife. One could even say he seems disconnected from the world from the relationship that is seen between him and his dog. The dogs passing could be seen as a metaphor for the Beth leaving her husband on his own to provide for himself, to take care of any possessions she may have had, and to fight his depression alone. The main character is now having feelings of loneliness and depression. The first paragraph states that "inside is warm", and "outside is cold", This could be tied as symbolism of the fact that he is secluding himself from the world. When the dog passed away the main character said that "it's not my dog, but it's my responsibility", this can make the reader think of all of the other responsibilities that the main character was left with. There are definitely some parallels between the dog and Beth. They both end up being burdens on the main character and leaving behind more for him to deal with. After the dog passes away the main character says "the blood on the carpet of the car is out of sight, and I will pretend it isn’t there. And then there's the touch." The touch can be seen as how the dog emotionally affected him by passing away. The dog did bring sadness to the main characters life due to the memories the main character seemed to have when he interacted with the dog. "I watched my hand volunteer itself and run its finger through the nap of his head". The way this sentence is put together makes it sound as if his caring for the dog was an involuntary action. One would think that if the pet had a close connection to a person, and that person has passed away that someone who misses the person that has passed may use the pet to help with the loss. The main character’s

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