In Victoria, a simple image — a dog curled beside a pub fire on a winter evening — has long been a legal impossibility, even as it remains commonplace across Europe. The state's Labor government, facing an election in November, has proposed amending food safety laws to allow dogs inside pubs, leaving the final decision to individual publicans. The announcement speaks to something older than policy: the human desire to bring the whole of one's life — including its four-legged members — into the warmth of communal space.