Sixteen seconds to remind you what it feels like to be completely present. A hand moves across fur, a dog exists in that moment with total certainty, and somewhere in the simplicity of that touch lives everything people spend entire series searching for. The animation is barely there, pencil marks and stillness, but that's the point; nothing between you and the thing itself.

Petting a dog is a single-episode short animation from Masaki Okuda. The short centers on a man spending a close, affectionate moment with his dog, and its title names the simple act at its heart. As a slice-of-life piece, it stays with that small everyday bond between a person and his pet rather than building a larger story around it.