Riley

So we got a new dog. Riley is a year-old mix of hound and lab and pointer, I guess, or a pointer is a hound? Whatever. Anyway. She's really sweet and a little shy and mostly gentle,,though there is some rambunctious puppy there too. And three weeks in, it's pretty much love all the way around.

Jack has wanted a dog for years, lamenting the fact that numerous friends have dogs and that we don't have one largely because Kate is afraid of dogs. Not entirely true, but whatever. Anyway, he loves hugging and petting and playing with her. He's pretty much thrilled to have a dog, wanting all his friends to meet her and so forth.

Kate, in the space of a day, went from being afraid of dogs to being a dominant dog trainer. Maybe she likes having someone in the house lower on the totem pole of authority than her? Anyway, she hugs and plays with Riley but also feeds her, lets her in and out of her crate, tells her what to do, and takes her by the collar to lead her where she wants her to go. She's not the Dog Whisperer as much as the Dog Bosser.

In the mornings Riley wants to greet us all in our beds. (We put a gate at the bottom of the stairs now.) Then she runs big Figure 8s in the backyard at high speeds. Her tail doesn't wag as much as it turns in circles like a crank.

She's a happy dog and we are too.