#75 PUPPY--SCOOTER & OTIS

Scooter Sublime Pine on guard at Ron’s deck

Scooter says: Here’s the problem, Mom. There’s an odor in the house, and I recognize it. Otis.

Mom: You are right, Scooter. Otis.

Scooter: He doesn’t like me.

Mom: He doesn’t.

THE PUG — OTIS

Scooter: That’s why while he’s here, I’m banished.

Mom: Not banished, Scooter.

Scooter: Not fair, Mom. When we were at his house in Santa Fe, I was banished. Now he’s at our house. He’s a Pug, Mom.

Mom: Big deal, you’re a Doodle, Scooter. You share about 99.9% of some extinct wolf DNA with all dogs, even Otis. That very tiny genetic difference gives us what we see between you and all other dogs, even Otis.

Scooter: And that tiny .1%? You’re looking at it!

Mom: Scooter! (Mom pats her lap. Scooter climbs onto it) You know how people have favorite dogs., and dogs have favorite people? Otis had a favorite person, Houston, who had a very comfortable recliner chair they shared. Houston had a very warm lap, and massive hands that stretched across Otis’s broad back for gentle rubs. They took long walks together, until they couldn’t. They rested in that recliner together, until they couldn’t. Otis visited his best, best friend, Houston, in the hospital, until he couldn’t. Until no one could.

And then? The recliner was gone. And then the house was sold. And then the car was packed with stuff, and people that mattered (but not as much as his best friend mattered), and Otis. And then they all were here, at your house, waiting for things to come from Santa Fe. And then, you were . . .

Scooter: Banished.

Mom: And then you were sent to your favorite “other home;” to your nearby Aunt Karen and Uncle Ron’s house.

Scooter: Are we genetically related?

Mom: Who, you and your people aunt and uncle? You are. People and dogs share about 84% of the same genetic material. People and dogs who live together also share skin microbes.

Scooter: Do you think Uncle Ron knows he might have some of my microbes on him?

Mom: I don’t know if that microbe thing is genetic, but it’s true. As for genes, we share the POMC gene that gives us food motivation, and another that lets us breathe at high altitudes, and another, the AMY2B, that allow us both to digest starch.

Scooter: Which is why you and I both like Fritos?

Mom: Probably.

Scooter: And when do I get to come home?

Mom: Tonight, maybe.

Scooter: We’ll cuddle?

Mom: That’s likely, seems genetically we are each made to . . .