Summer 2026

I t was the Roman poet Horace who expressed the idea of “carpe diem,” literally “pluck the day,” forev- er translated as “seize the day.” “Carpe diem invokes the sleep- ing giant within you,” says Simran Khurana.“Carpe diem is a battle cry. It urges you to shed your inhibitions, pluck some courage, and grab every opportunity that comes your way.” I suggest that no one does that better than our four-legged fur babies. Humans should all wag our tails in pursuit of “canine carpe diem!” Or as my friend Ellen Martin put it, “fetch the day!” Today, this moment, is everything. Go fetch it, in all its unexpected chance meetings, mistakes, mess and magic. Because who knows what’s next? A glorious day in Carmel until you’re run over by a Tesla you never heard coming while stepping onto Ocean Avenue texting pickleball plans. Lest ye forget the Yiddish proverb, “Man plans, God laughs.” Perhaps I resonate so much with this canine carpe diem/fetch the day idea because I remain so far from achieving it. Even while writing this, I find my taste buds considering what to have for lunch at Panda Express tomorrow. Ooh, I love their Bejing beef. And their Sweetfire chicken breast…STOP! I’m already fetching tomorrow. What happened to today, this moment? No time for that. My frontal lobe is forever fetching high-level cognitive processes, decision making, planning, impulse control, social behavior, language production, personal- ity expression, and memory (usually about stuff best forgotten). But I am equally certain thatWinifred holds no such primate demons. Her “fetch the day” is all about frontal lobe fetching of the here and now! Then again if your “here and now” is really awful, you are certainly entitled to sing along with Little Orphan Annie, “The sun will come out tomorrow…I love ya, tomorrow.You’re only a day away.” The above notwithstanding, watching Winifred navigate the here and now has made me more attuned to what Aristotle called “eudaimonia.” Often translated as happiness, joy, thriving and relishing all of life’s twists and turns and detours. In other words, a day well lived. So good old Aristotle knew all about canine carpe diem long before my awakening. Eudaimonia! A day well lived. So how do we humans get there? By walking in the paws of our fur babies! Our dogs see all, hear all, smell all and taste all. And yes, Winnie’s “all” is often more “all” than my primate sensibilities can handle. But therein lies the bumpy road to canine carpe diem and eudaimonia. “Think of the day as a ripened fruit waiting to be picked,” says Simran Khurana. “You have to pluck the fruit at the right time. If you delay, the fruit will go stale. But if you pluck it at the right time, the rewards are innumerable.” That said, the right time for fruit plucking is not without risk. For me, the plucking pothole is that seductive siren called anticipation—taste buds tingling long before the fruit is even plucked! And what happens when that anticipation of tasting is far sweeter than the eventual bite of fruit? You are left with a memory of great expectation—and the stale taste of reality. Which reminds me of the 1971 song “Anticipation” by Carly Simon: We can never know about the days to come But we think about them anyway And I wonder if I’m really with you now Or just chasin’ after some finer day Don’t thinkWinifred spends much paw-gnawing anticipation “chasin’ after some finer day.” But we humans do. I admit to mind-numbing preoccupation with plans for a finer day just around the corner. I refuse to believe that Winifred was put here to emulate any of my human primal deficiencies. Our fur-babies are here to show us the way out—to guide us on their ripe-fruit-pluck- ing canine carpe diem! A screenwriter and best-selling golf humorist in a previous life, Mark Oman forsook his golf addiction and took up with Winifred, co-author of their screenplay, “Murder, Misfits and Mutts!” Mark and Winnie live in Carmel with four-legged little sister, Molly, and two-legged wife, Barbara. Contact Winifred (or Mark) at: mark@markoman.com . DOG TALES M A R K O M A N I admit to mind-numb- ing preoccupation with plans for a finer day just around the corner. Canine Carpe Diem 58 C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • S U M M E R 2 0 2 6