It was like that, only, as they say, different.  It was a dog, a white dog with a large white nose, and when I saw him I thought, he is close, only he wasn't, apparently, because I walked and walked and stopped walking and slept and woke and walked and walked and the doghouse and the dog bowl and the white dog and the white nose stayed the same size, like those mountains when you ride all day towards them across the desert.