This is a portrait of our dog, Nero, a black male Labrador Retriever with a beautiful spirit indeed. That’s me holding the lacrosse ball (his favorite) while holding the camera and trying to focus (yes, it was quite difficult). My teenage son, Sam, is in the background, evidently amused by my struggle to take this shot and by Nero’s obsession with pictured ball. Sam has a very special relationship with our dog and while Nero loves everyone in the family equally, these two are especially close.