The Curious Incident of the Doggies in the Nighttime

Eleri is obsessed with dogs.

But it's sort of a strange obsession, because if an actual dog actually comes near her, she freaks out and demands to be picked up. So it's more the idea of a dog, Plato's shadow-on-the-wall dog, if you will grant me that latitude. We tested the theory by showing Eleri some puppy videos on YouTube: yup, the girl loves dogs- on video.



She especially loves this book that Barb ordered for the school library where she was librarian for many years: when it turned out to be not quite as educational as Barb expected, she passed it along to Clio as a gift. This is one of those touch-and-feel books, where most of the dogs have a little furry patch you can pat or a sticky tongue, or a pull-tab makes the dog's head wag or leg scratch. Eleri can not get enough of this book.

The other night, she woke up around midnight, crying, inconsolable. This never happens. We tried everyhting: more milk, in case she was hungry. Some oragel on her gums in case she was teething. A steam in the bathroom to relieve the congestion from her cold. While in the bathroom, out came her one sentence: I want Daddy. Now considering the hour, I thought this was a great idea, and roused Dave from bed, only, when he came in to see Eleri she shook her head and said "uh-uhn" in that charmingly emphatic way she has. So we had to think: not Daddy.... (you see where this is going?) Yes, Doggies. We got the doggy book, put Eleri on the bed between us, and for the next 15 minutes she jumped up and down on our bed, laughed, waggled paper dog heads and tails, and generally tried to engage us in play, all woes of moments before forgotten. I swear, you would have thought the girl was at the circus eating ice cream while taking a bath. (have I mentioned that the bath is Eleri's favorite place? That she likes ice cream enough to trot out her never-used sign, "more").

Anyway, after 15 minutes of this, Dave deemed her ready to go back to bed, and sure enough, not another peep.

I want Doggies, indeed.