Doggies, doggies everywhere

Beth met a ten-week-old French bulldog today — a tiny brown sleek bundle of inquisitiveness with big ears and a squashed-in nose. I'm not sure who was more interested in whom, but there was definite adoration going on in both directions. Beth wanted to be close, but not too close. Finally she let me hold her while the dog's owner held onto the dog, and they sat there regarding each other for a while.

"Can the doggie give you a kiss?" I asked her. "Doggies kiss you by licking your hand."

Her response was something along the lines of, Well, yeah. That would be GREAT! Why didn't you say so sooner?

So the doggie gave her a kiss on the hand. And gave me a kiss on the face. And Beth showed the doggie the green dog stamp on her hand from today's library visit. And everything was really, really cool.

We recorded the AKC dog show on Animal Planet last week, and we don't dare delete it even though we've watched the entire thing, like, twice. Beth loves the doggies. She's not impressed with the announcers, or the judges, or the former Miss America talking to all the handlers. But put the dogs on and she's mesmerized. She calls out, "Doggiedoggiedoggiedoggieeeee!" until someone acknowledges that, yes, that's a doggie, and wasn't that neat that she got to see it? And then she's okay until the next dog comes on, and it starts all over again. Last night she had to take her stuffed dalmatian to bed with her. I sense an obsession brewing.