If smells were colors

My dog and I like to walk, but we're not very good conversationalists. He spends his time as dogs are wont, inhaling a broad and bright array of scents and smells, seeming to hardly notice anything reflecting photons. I don't smell a thing, contenting myself with a scenic vista whose changes, I gather, are far less intriguing and dynamic than his olfactory universe. If he could describe odors as I might colors, I wonder how my neighborhood appears? Would he pity my blindness?

Note: this was originally posted on ketches, yaks & hawks 8 December 2007