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There’s an old bond that never really disappeared. It just changed animals.

Today, for a lot of us, it’s the bond we have with our dog.

And from here on, when I talk about a man and his dog—or a man and his horse—I say man for a simple reason: I’m a man. That’s the experience I know and the experience I can speak to. I’ll leave it to women to tell you what that bond means to them.

Your dog sleeps beside your bed, at your feet, or right beside you. Your dog rides shotgun in your truck. Your dog knows when you’re angry, hurting, sick, or just having a bad day.

You talk to your dog even though you know damn well you’re not getting an answer—and that you’d freak right the hell out if you did.

And somehow, your dog usually understands anyway.

If you had lived in the Old West, that relationship would often have been with your horse. Or perhaps with your dog and your horse.

Two different critters with two different jobs, but the same bond.

Dogs certainly existed on the frontier, but most had jobs. They guarded livestock, hunted, protected the homestead, and earned their keep. Keeping another mouth around simply for companionship was a luxury many people couldn’t afford.

The horse had a job, too—but that job put the horse beside you, or under you, constantly.

Your horse carried you hundreds of miles. Slept near your camp. Heard danger before you did. Found the trail when you couldn’t. And if you were hurt badly enough—or blackout drunk—getting home might depend entirely on your horse.

Spend enough lonely miles together and something that begins as necessity becomes companionship.

There were men who trusted their horses more than they trusted most people.

Today, plenty of us would say exactly the same thing about our dogs.

Different century. Different animal.

Same old friendship.

And for the few who kept a dog back then as more of a friend and companion than simply as a working animal, that bond would have been with both.

I would count those men very lucky indeed!

— Jefferson Bartlett

Author of “Atonement in Blood“

Glad the Supreme Court cleared the way for safe third country deportations again. Enforce the law and keep American communities safe - that's not extreme, it's common sense.