Story note: Left Behind

This is about this.

If you're familiar with shintoism, or if you've been to a shinto shrine, you've probably seen or heard about guardian dogs. We say dogs but they are usually an imaginary animal, guarding the gate to the sacred area.
For some gods, foxes stand guard. These are usually harvest gods.
The guardians are a pair, one with its mouth open, another closed. The open mouth represent the sound "ah," which indicates the beginning of all things, as the "ah" sound is the first of the Japanese syllabary. The other has its mouth closed, representing "n" (or "m") sound, which is the last sound of our syllabary.

Some of you might have noticed that I mention shrines a lot. In my F&SF story there was also a scene at the shrine, with its guardian dogs. It's not like I'm an active shintoist or something--I just like to be at shrines. With a lot of shrines, when you go through the torii gate, you can actually feel the air change, noises of the city dying away. And there is not one guardian dog (or fox or any other animal) that looks the same as another. Each one is unique, but I'm not sure if this is because they are carved different in the first place, or the weather and touch and history change them after a time.

Well. This looks like How Much I Like Shrines and their Guardian Dogs rather than a story note. Anyway. I hope you enjoy the story.