"Psst! Hey, Kid!"

So this morning's walky time was spent going up the wash toward the canyon, now that it's pretty much dried out from the flood of the weekend before last.

At one point Ghost disappeared into the brush, and Little Bear trotted after. I heard nothing. "They'll be fine," I thought, and kept walking up the wash.

Time passed. We continued up the wash. "Uh...they'll...be fine," I tried to convince myself. Ghost has never actually liked Little Bear. At all.

More time passed. An imaginary conversation occurred to me:

"Hey, kid! Wanna see something fun?"

"What is it, Uncle Ghost? Tell me! Tell me!"

"Well, you see right over there behind those rocks? Yeah, those rocks; the ones Uncle Joel - er, your daddy - can't see behind? Right over there's a whole bunch of really friendly dogs. They like chubby little puppies a lot, especially when they're nice and juic...I mean, cute. Yeah."

"Really? Friendly dogs? I've never met one of those! Whee! Let's go!"

"Yeah, you go right ahead, kid. I'm right behind you."



"Daddy! Daddy! Uncle Ghost showed me some friendly dogs! There were lots of them, and they smiled at me, (They've got really big teeth!) and they wanted me to stay for lunch, and ... Ooo! Butterfly! ... Daddy! Daddy!"