I'm lying next to Zoë, nursing her to bed for the night (yes, we still nurse to sleep around here; at our house, milk-nap is a compound noun).
The window above us is open, and summer sounds of sprinklers, children's voices, and footsteps of passersby are filtering in. Zoë is content, eyes drooping, hand pats slowing (love those hand pats).
The new nextdoor neighbors' tiny dog barks. Softly.
Zoë's eyes fly open. She nearly sits up. She scrunches her tiny nose and purses her full raspberry lips. "Ohhhhhhhhh" she sighs plaintively, as if empathizing with the pains of a small child, her emotions almost too much for her to bear. Her arms spring to her chest, one crossed over the other, as she rocks from side to side.
"You love that doggy?" I ask.
Her response is a high-pitched "woof, woof, woof" that is so canine the dog next door answers back.
The love fest continues--dog unseen--through the wall for five minutes or so before she says "bye bye" and settles back down to go to sleep for the night.
For now, flesh and blood dogs are a little scary to get too close to; her stuffed white dog suffices--and gets lots of hugs and kisses from Zoë and, on her command, from anyone in the vicinity of her white dog.
But if that ever changes, this little girls' puppy love is the one thing that could make me rethink my never-want-a-dog-in-the-city stance.
4 comments:
ooooh......you expressed how she is with dogs sooo well. So darling!
mmm...I love this. As usual I can just relate so much . Not so much about the dog, but about the nursing nap, and those little pats and raspberry lips. Love it.
this is so hilarious. i love it!
If anything will do it, that will! Piper has a stuffed puppy she adores right now as well. Falls asleep with it curled under her arm. I almost can't contain the adorable.
Post a Comment