Badgerina shuffles about, rocking Filled With Satan as we slip past a narrowboat - the last we'll see for a while - and glancing nervously at an exuberant Newfoundland dog romping down the towpath after us.
And then, from distant fields I heard a commotion and saw an exuberant, giant white dog come leaping across the crunching golden grass, looping through the brush, silhouetted against the sky.
With its exuberant "salty sea dog" look, featuring TVs set into brass "portholes", doors faced with 3D sea monster scenes, and a stunning staircase installation made of "shipwrecked" wood, the Stora Hotel promises to be unlike any other in the town (or anywhere else, come to that).
Exuberant commercials featured dogs, dolls, a grinning Japanese man and the friendly tagline, "Enjoy the Ride".
This exuberant repertoire (even dogs have only approximately 1,200 olfactory and chemoreceptor genes) suggests that the nematodes' wild environment must be extraordinarily complex.
If they find any undesirable traits -- too shy, too distractable, too exuberant -- they withdraw that dog.
And there was a Philadelphia delegation too: hip-hop from the Roots, exuberant pop from Dr. Dog and jazz from the Philadelphia Experiment, including Ahmir (?uestlove) Thompson from the Roots on drums along with Christian McBride on bass, Uri Caine on piano and, at 2 30 on Sunday morning, the actress Gina Gershon (a non-Philadelphian) twanging a jew's-harp.
This was the world of the cherished mongrel — rescue dogs, shelter dogs, strays that had dodged euthanasia: a part border collie that made an exuberant entrance then spun away from any dog that wanted to play, a dignified Labrador with its nose elevated, a greyhound missing a tail, a terrier that kept getting overrun by the others only to bounce up again in furious pursuit.
But if you can find a way in, you can catch an early set by the exuberant Philadelphia classic-rock band Dr. Dog; you could probably be home, or at someone else's home, by midnight.
