Good puppy

The neighbors got a little puppy. Now he’s a big puppy. Black, shiny coat, wags his tail hard enough that it hurts when it whacks your legs. This fall they got a post in the backyard too, and some airplane cable, maybe ten feet long, and they tie him to it. He barks, I assume feeling cold and lonely. I went for a run today - it was in the low fifties! in February! - a short run, just 20 minutes, I’m trying to get back into it after too long off - because of too long never off my dumb job - and when I got home from the run my family was all in the backyard hanging out. “Go pet the dog” my wife said, pointing, and he was looping himself around the tree at the edge of my neighbor’s yard, at the very end of the airplane cable, his collar pulling tight on his neck, that tail just swishing away. I came over to pet him and he jumped up high by my face, reaching with his paws. I patted his head and back, “good puppy, good puppy” and we played a little in the backyard until it was time for dinner. My toddler didn’t wanna go in, she was digging with a shovel in the last of the snow and with a rake in the leaves. I eventually had to pick her up to go in, which she did not like but the puppy calmed her down - “I’m gonna pet him, you wanna pet him?” “Yes I pet him!” so we patted his head and back together, “good puppy, good puppy.” They tie you down when you’re young and even if you’re one of the ones that gets away for a while you still wake up old and tied down and maybe the best it gets is patting a younger one on the back. It’s all for everyone’s own good but sometimes it’s nice to imagine if everyone at the same time all slipped the leash.