The parents of the kids I’ve been enjoying the past four days are due to return in a couple of hours. The young ones are asleep, the house is picked up, I’ve finished my book (A Thousand Splendid Suns), and the four remote controls baffle me. I’ve caught up on my blog reading and Facebook, and even whittled my e-mail to 17. What to do?

There’s this one creature stirring around here besides me—the family dog, Duke. I know what I can do…!

Can you guess I think he’s a pretty “good boy”? If you’re curious, he’s a Spanish water dog. He does not shed or smell. About once a year he gets sheared. To my way of thinking, he’s about as perfect a pet as someone else can have.