A new family member

The dreaded phone call came sometime Friday afternoon.

It was from Trish the Wife. Since she usually doesn’t call during the school day because she is hopefully busy inspiring the minds of our students and future leaders, it worried me.

I braced for bad news…and it came.

“What would you say if we got another (she paused here for dramatic effect)…dog?” she said.

First off, we have a dog. Second off, that dog (Molly) is sometimes more than we can handle. And she wanted to add another? Egads!

I mumbled something back along the lines of we don’t really need another dog but it probably doesn’t matter what I say because you will do it anyway since you are Trish the Wife.

I asked what kind of dog it was, fearful it would be a Pit Bull or Rottweiller, which would probably eat Molly for an appetizer. She said it was a Maltese, which is one of those little fluffy dogs.

When I got home that evening after a long and strenuous day at work, Trish was sitting on the back deck with Molly and some little white thing that looked about the size of a New York City rat.

I quickly realized our dog population is no longer segregated. We had Molly, solid black, and the dog to be named later, solid white.

We, or rather Trish, finally settled on a name: Dodger. She kept asking me what we should name it. I ventured forth with names such as “Spike” and “Slayer”, which certainly did not do justice to the little pooter.

Trish had named both her sons names starting with the letter “D” and planned to call the next one which never came Dodger, or Dodge. And the dog was named.

I had never been a big fan of the Dodgers growing up. The name Dodger Dog does have a good ring to it and I understand the Dodger Dogs are quite tasty out in L.A.

So, it was Dodger. The little guy is a little skittish, to tell the truth. He is not sure about contact with people and is perfectly happy to run away when one of us tries to pet him, or scamper off in his cage and try to hide. Dodger does like to play with Molly, which has made my morning publishing even more difficult.

I would share a picture of Dodger with you, but he does not stay still long enough for me to get one. Dodger also rides a little low to the ground and the wet grounds have not been kind to his whiteness, kind of like a white truck as dirt and mud are attracted to both.

He weighs a whopping 6.8 pounds, most of it hair. Dodger is fond of chasing Molly in the yard. But since his legs are about the length of a buffalo wing, Dodger is not all that swift a foot.

Dodger also likes to grab Molly’s toys when we play fetch. After this happens, Molly looks up at me with a “why?” look on her face, probably the same way I look at Trish when the new dog leaves a Dodge pile on the floor.

But overall, she has done quite well with Dodger, considering Molly is not a big fan of other dogs attempting to take away her attention.

The worst thing is that while Molly is supposed to be my dog, she favors Trish aside from when it is time to play. Dodger follows me around like he is my shadow, even when I don’t have food.