My reflection on this photo can’t be said better than the caption, but to me, the intimacy is striking—both between viewer and photograph, and man and dog. We’re being let in on a moment in this story, obviously taken in a quiet pause after something gruesome that man and dog endured together.

One of the elements of a great photo is that it stays with you long past the first viewing. There is something in the picture that your mind keeps coming back to—that you find yourself thinking about months later. This simple yet endearing image of a young boy giving his guinea pig a bath does that for me.

Over the past three years, I’ve lost three beloved members of