The dog I grew up with, Canyon, used to love it when my family got together in the den to watch a movie. He never so much as glanced at the TV and instead kept his eyes locked on the big bowl of popcorn we always made. His perseverance was inevitably rewarded with a handful of kernels, which he scarfed down as fast as he could before going back to gazing intently at the bowl. Once the popcorn was completely gone, he usually curled up at our feet and fell asleep, completely ignoring the images moving on the screen in front of him.