Dog Days by Andrew Cotter

Author:Andrew Cotter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Published: 2022-06-29T00:00:00+00:00

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3 I should make mention that Cambridge won both the men’s and women’s editions of the Boat Race the following day. Olive and Mabel followed it keenly from the sofas at home.

May 2021

Tuesday 4 May

Today I finally posted the video of our climb in the Cairngorms and I admit – in the pages of this diary at least – to being quite pleased with it. There’s a change of tone, while hopefully keeping the humour as I chat away to both Olive and Mabel during the expedition. But it has taken the dogs from claustrophobic sketches in and around our house to the wide-open spaces and, with a bit of help from the footage gathered by Iain’s drone camera, it certainly has, in parts, a cinematic quality. It also offers something of an explanation for the way I feel about these dogs and about being out in the mountains with them.

The response is quite something. Views rapidly climbing towards a million on Twitter alone and comments in the hundreds, expressing their approval and with every one of them a dopamine spike hits my brain. This is where you have caught the wave.

But with all of it comes unwelcome and possibly unnecessary self-examination. If we are released from the grip of the pandemic and let loose in the world again, why do I keep on making the videos? After all, in this instance I went climbing to escape the modern world and yet at the same time I took it with me.

I reassure myself that when I am up there, I really am soaking it all in with my own senses and enjoying it for those moments in themselves. But I am also taking photos and filming the dogs – and these captured images are only partly for me to enjoy later on. If I am honest, mostly they are so that I can post them on social media or, in this case, put together this video. There’s no doubt I enjoy sharing the trip with others, but what is that enjoyment? Do I need the approval? Is this just a superannuated version of every selfie taken by every person hoping that it will generate a thumbs-up and perhaps a word of praise?

But, as with most things we experience just now, I am surely analysing it too much. You might as well ask why people make television programmes or films or write and perform comedy or songs. They do it for themselves of course and their own enjoyment of creating something, but also for the reaction those creations bring. And if that reaction is positive and it strikes a chord with others or cheers them up or moves them somehow, then surely it is worth doing.

A few days ago a man in New Zealand had been in touch on Twitter to say that his daughter checks YouTube every single day to see if there might be a new Olive and Mabel video. So who am I to

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