Shortly after Cheryl's "break down" or "mid life crisis", she was sitting in her living room with her new Border Collie, James. James was partly responsible for helping her out of her depression. The dog was about 4 months old and sleeping at Cheryl's feet. She got to thinking about what kind of a life James had. The result was this song, which you can watch on YouTube.

The question was raised on her mailing list about a line from this song:

If I could carry your black and white

There seemed to be two main interpretations: carry as in lift and carry, and carry as in carry off or imitate. The second interpretation is what Cheryl meant. Here is her explanation:

What I mean is, if I could pull off what appears to be his complete lack of indecision. He seems so sure of the things he knows. He has no grey areas. (Hence that line is followed by "sleep so sound, wake so nice, I'd keep real close to my own advice") He loves frisbee, loves Rich and his backhoe. He's thrilled when I get home. But he's sad when he sees me packing my bag and he's TERRIFIED of thunder and nothing I can say or do will move him in any sense from these positions. I admire this in him. I marvel at it. Then there is he fact that he is also physically black and white and I think he is so beautiful and graceful. I percieve this same beauty and grace in his dogged, uncluttered world view.