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An inconclusive list of things I’ve learned from having a puppy in the house (again)

  1. Tiles are a godsend.
  2. Carpet accidents happen. Despite your best efforts.
  3. Money spent on a good carpet cleaner is never a waste.
  4. Reading instructions and learning the proper use of your carpet cleaner is time well spent.
  5. Puppies (like teens) eat a lot. They will eat pretty much any everything.
  6. Puppies have two speeds; full throttle or fast asleep.
  7. You will walk more than you usually do or care to. You may even run.
  8. The older dog will teach the puppy good habits. And bad ones.
  9. The sound of dogs play-fighting is different from the sound of dogs actually fighting.
  10. Puppies learn rules quickly. They will flaunt them. While looking at you from the corner of their eyes.
  11. Puppies will bring out the gentleness and sweetness in recalcitrant teens.
  12. You will be responsible for the puppy (even though it will “belong” to the nearly-adult child).
  13. You will not mind this responsibility. You always wanted a horde of kids and dogs.
  14. You can teach a puppy to boop noses.
  15. Clever dogs learn quickly. Good behaviour, and bad.
  16. There is intense joy in being greeted at the door by excited dogs.
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My friend, Bear

CW: mention (no detail) of dog death in children’s literature

When Child 2 was five he started a reading program at school. He was an early reader, like his brother, and the teacher was gently extending his skills. Every day, he had to pick a book from a specially marked box, bring it home, and get one of his parents to read with him. The idea was that he’d read, we’d listen, and if he stumbled, we’d help him sound out words and figure out meanings from context.

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Silky Sidney

She pinched off a piece of the tiny banana between the tips of her fingers and thumb. Sun-ripened and sugary-sweet, it was harvested earlier that morning from one of the many banana plants in her sprawling, verdant, over-planted garden. She mashed it meticulously, breaking up large chunks so there would be no choking hazard. Then she grabbed the ‘baby’, pried open his mouth, and shoved banana inside, scraping her fingers along his teeth to get every last scrap. She tilted his chin up and massaged his throat–there would be no spitting out of pre-triturated banana, no rejection of her love.

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