A few weeks ago my mother went out-of-town and we kept her deaf, elderly dog with a tiny bladder at our house. While my tiny charge is familiar with Pappy (said dog’s name) at his Mimi’s house him being a weekend long – overnight visitor at our house was something new. Texas and the animals of the house have a kind of silent understanding – with our dog Buster the understanding is that you don’t try to ride me and I will get all your table scraps – with the two cats the understanding is more tedious but usually amounts to – don’t sit on us or pull our tails and we will occasionally let you touch us and will refrain from scratching or biting you (the same cannot be said about their arrangement with Z). So with the introduction of Pappy for a long weekend the whole balance of usual agreements was thrown into a tailspin…Buster demanded more attention than normal – the cats found it amusing to watch him from their couch-perches and Texas – well he found that the same rules do not apply to big dogs and little dogs.

While Buster allows for a certain level of pushing and nudging – smaller Pappy like all small dogs has to be less accommodating less he get squished or break a leg in the scuffle – this eventually led to the inevitable conversation with my tiny tot about being careful with things that are smaller than we are. The conversation went something like this…

Me: Oh no Texas!  You have to be very gentle with Pappy – he is smaller than you are

Texas: little?

Me: Yes, he is little and it is our jobs to protect things that are littler than we are and keep them safe.

Texas: I’m little (at this point he batted his eye lashes and crawled into my lap looking very adorable and defenseless)

Me: Yes, that is why mommy keeps you safe and won’t let anything hurt you.