What the Dog Did

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Only a few things make me guffaw out loud: Failblog.org, backpacking stories, and dog stories. Here are a few dog stories from Emily Yoffe's What the Dog Did.

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I discovered that it wasn't always the dog's fault that previously important component's of own's existence---family, work, running a home, sleep---became subordinate to the needs of the dog. I was talking to a dog owner who told me how his Dutch shepherd drove him and his wife crazy with a wake-up routine that started at five-thirty AM. The dog, Riley, ran an ever-faster circuit around the bed, panting loudly, then bumping the mattress. When I asked how Riley was able to get all the way around the bed, his owner explained that the bed was pulled out from the wall.

"Why?" I asked.

"Because Riley likes to run around it."

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Roscoe made a particular bond with my husband. When my husband came in the door at night, it was Roscoe who ran to greet him. While I was making dinner and my daughter was watching her television allotment, we heard the two of them wrestling in the front hall. "I love you, too, big boy. I love you, too," my husband said with a laugh, finally getting the kind of attention and affection he had hoped a wife and child would provide.

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