Scarlett and Otto were lying on the living room rug the other day, her head leaning against him, his tail thumping lazily on the floor. Rob sat on the couch above them, part of this suddenly serene moment that I watched from my vantage point at the dining room table. Our house is basically one big room, so that even when we’re in separate spots, we’re all together. This has its upsides and its downsides. But when everyone is behaving calmly and cutely, it’s mostly upside.

Then. “Let’s get a new dog,” Scarlett declared. “I don’t want this one anymore. He’s too aggressive.” Otto remained beneath her, looking to me as if he was doing his best impression of the coffee table, a weathered wooden semi sphere that has never been known for its forcefulness.

Scarlett is off school all week, and Rob is taking the week off from work, too. It’s heaven for Otto, who gets much more attention when the two of them are home. This morning, Scarlett is playing at a friend’s house, but Rob took the dog to a nearby park to run him around and exhaust him, in hopes that he will stop eating pieces of pizza off the kitchen counter. “Don’t leave them there,” I said futilely. Read More>