A Boy and His Dog

This past Saturday, I thought we were going swimming, but it turned out (as I found out when we pulled into the parking lot) that we were just going to stop by a pet store to "look at" some dogs that Amy and the children had been looking at the previous day. If you know my family, you know how this story ends...

Amy was campaigning for one particular wire-haired terrier, already named "Gigi" (by her), and Ian was passionately pushing for a Maltese-Pomeranian mix, already named "Wild" (by him). Amy had the silly idea that I could (or would consider) serving as some kind of tie-breaker.

So we have two new puppies.

But more importantly, Ian has a dog. There was never any question as to whose dog this one was, and Ian has been extremely dutiful, parental, and doting in his new capacity.

Interestingly, Wild is no longer "Wild," for the very sensible reason that this crazy-haired little puppy, in spite of his looks, is not wild, but rather subdued and extremely affectionate. In fact, Wild is now "Golden" (pronounced more like "Go-den," since he was named by a six-year-old). This is very much in the tradition of guinea pigs named "Run-Walk" and "Funny-In-The-Face." If our boys were in charge of naming New York, it would probably be called "Big."

Needless to say, they are the very archetype of the timeless Boy and Dog of human history, and particularly of the American experience.

Yesterday, Ian observed, doting as always: "He always sticks out his tongue and pants," to which Daniel responded, with uproarious laughter and disbelief: "Dogs don't have pants!"

[It makes sense - he probably "parsed" the statement as "He always sticks out his tongue and sticks out his pants.]

We put the dogs to bed together, as part of crate training (or downstairs-bathroom training). Sunday night, as Ian was saying good night to Golden, he said very sweetly:

"I'm gonna miss you during this night, but we know we're gonna see each other in the morning."

Of course, Golden was Ian's first item of action in the morning, and when I left for work, Ian was sitting under the dining room table (where Golden sometimes goes), with Golden on his lap.

I took a picture, before reluctantly heading out the door.

(June 26 to 28, 2010)