My dog is named Antelope and she does, in fact, run like one

I adopted her the week after SPAC 2013 from a shelter outside Albany. Brindle, forty pounds, built like a coiled spring and completely unhinged about open fields.

Naming a dog after a Phish song is a commitment you make to explaining yourself for twelve years. The vet asks. The groomer asks. A man at a dog park in Chicago once said "like the animal?" and I said "sure" because I was tired.

But here's the thing: when she hits full speed across a soccer field she does the exact thing the song does. Slow build, patient, patient, and then a release that is genuinely alarming to watch.

She's old now and mostly walks. I still say "run like an antelope, out of control" when I unclip the leash. She still tries.