a boy and his dog

Honey has been gone for six months now, and we miss her. Lately we've missed having a canine companion in the house with us, and Dennis has been talking more and more about missing Honey. I scoured the paper this morning and saw a listing for a goldendoodle and almost called about it. David was offered a three year old Springer spaniel/Labrador mix from a coworker. And I've been reading Dean Koontz's book "A Big Little Life", a memoir of Trixie, his late golden retriever who was so similar in personality to Honey. It occurred to me mid-morning that we have a perfectly good dog outside, one who's already housebroken and knows our house rules. He's been a quasi-inside dog before, but has a sensitive stomach and is terrified of thunderstorms, and those two things combined can be disastrous. And we haven't missed the dog hair one bit!

I gave Tabasco a bath and a serious brushing and let him in today. Dennis was delighted and played with him all day long. He was thrilled to have a dog in his room to talk to and play with, and he called me in there to see the trick they were rehearsing. Tabasco always howls when he hears a siren, so Dennis got out his electronic fire engines and pushed buttons until he found the one sound that would make the dog sing. Hilarious! I heard him tell Tabasco lots of things, my favorite of which was "don't hit me with your tail because, you see, I'm very special". And I kind of teared up when I saw him hug the dog and say "I don't want you to die, Tabasco". He's an old dog, to be sure, but if we can manage to keep him inside, his last years will be happy ones. Dennis has already claimed him as his very own dog. And Tabasco has been very happy hanging out in Dennis' room and watching him play. I guess a boy really does need a dog!