Alien Dogs?

Luky and I went out early this morning - maybe 5:00. The Moon was a crystal sliver low in the East, and despite Katrina's recent whistle stop through Atlanta, the sky was clear and pristinely black.

Luky walked up into the BellSouth park and turned to face me while doing his business. He likes to talk while he's squatting.

"If there is life elsewhere in the universe, and possibly alien civilizations, do you think there could be alien dogs? Maybe even alien Malamutes?"

"I guess so," I responded. "I suppose they wouldn't really be 'Malamutes' per se . . . but I suppose there could be some sort of Malamute-looking, canine-type life out there."

"Hey, you remember Giordano Bruno?" he asks me. He stands up and starts kicking his hind legs to make sure later morning visitors smell the oils from his paws and realize this 'bathroom' was already called for today.

"Bruno? Come on, Luky, I'm not even awake enough to remember my own name. What are you talking about?"

"I was watching the Science Channel this morning while you were putting on your walking shoes. There was this program about alien planets and it mentioned Giordano Bruno. He lived in the 16th Century. He was a Monk, but he believed that all the lights in the sky were stars like the Sun, and they had planets going around them. He wrote that those planets were packed with life just like Earth."

"And so you think he was saying there are Malamutes out there!?"

"Maybe."

"What did the rest of his friends and co-workers think?"

"They convicted him of heresy, nailed his tongue to his jaw and burned him at the stake."

"Oh. Yikes!"

"Well, I think he scared them."

"Sounds like it . . . good thing he was just a human and not a Malamute, huh!?"