Even though I have never fed this dog, y’never know! He wags his tail, and searches my face and follows every move I make as I stand on the street up hill from his house. He pushes his body as close to mine as he can without knocking me down, sits on my foot as I stand there. The sunset is spectacular, the whole sky the suns’s canvas with great swaths of color and light. A huge, shimmering event. It is hard to tear the eyes away. The dog does not seem to perceive the sunset. He is entirely focused on my face, reading my mood, my interest in him. Apparently happy that for whatever reason I stopped in front of his house.

It is easy to know why the dog--a black lab--behaves in this way. Since prehistory, humans have appreciated dogs, and the ones that are most friendly and sensitive to our needs have been more likely to be fed, to live longer and breed. Those traits for being man’s very best friend have been refined and passed on for thousands of years. Programmed in his genes. And it is easy to understand his disinterest in a big sky event--do sunsets provide clues about food, water and shelter? About a good sexual romp? No. Sunsets just don’t push any canine pleasure buttons.

The dog stares at my face as though I were a goddess and thumps his tail. I may not feed him, but others who attend to him will, and he loves us all.

It’s not why dogs don’t watch the sun set. The question is why humans do. What’s behind our interest in the sky, the moon, the clouds? Why are we wired to be aroused by beauty, symetry, color, light?