I am a dog lover. I have a shih tzu at home named Buster who has been the subject of many of my paintings. In high school, I earned money by painting dog portraits, so when I read this haiku, it seemed like the perfect fit for me.

The dog depicted differs from a typical dog portrait because instead of painting a real dog, I invented a breed of my own. Since the haiku begins with “Ears flapping in wind,” I had to choose a dog with floppy ears. I searched for pictures of basset hounds, but it needed to be a big dog in order to walk its owner. The final creation is a cross between a basset hound and a Great Dane. I chose a small girl as the dog walker to emphasize the humor of the haiku.