J Day

[Quick update before today's post:  Roberts The Boxer--see earlier posts--won his first round by knockout.  His next bout is tonight.]


Joshua is 5 1/2 now. 

(At which age did we stop counting the fractional parts?  The same age we decided that a nap in the middle of the day was a good idea?) 

A few weeks ago, we had our dog neutered.  This required Benziger to wear an E-Collar, as described on our vet receipt.  The "E"--improbably--stands for "Elizabethan." 

But our dog didn't look Shakespearean, or otherwise noble.  He looked. . .uncomfortable.  And decidedly helpless, which is the point of the collar. 

One evening, Bryan and I were in our family room when we heard a wretched, piercing yelp from the dog, followed by Joshua crying in a sudden burst, then running towards us.

He was hysterical.  Not funny hysterical.  Histrionics-hysterical.  What on earth?. . .

He couldn't tell us, such was his crying. 

"Are you hurt?"  He shook his head.

"Why are you crying?" Couldn't answer.

I thought of the dog yelp.  "Is Benziger hurt?"  He nodded.  Woefully.

"Did you hurt him?" He nodded again, he cried even harder.

"Well, what did you do to him?"  Josh resorted to mime.  He grabbed two ends of something, as though holding a pole, and then he bit down on whatever was in his hands as though--

No.  It couldn't be.  There's no way this means what it looks like it means.  But. . .what else could it mean?

"Josh!  Did you bite his tail?"

Even greater wailing ensued.



How long had Josh wondered what it would be like to bite the dog's tail?  Each time, did he think, "No, because then the dog will bite me"?  But now--with that collar on--the dog was defenseless.

Or was this the first time he's ever considered it? 
Was this something he really wanted to do, or did he figure, "Eh, why not?" 

I know I'll think this again, but right then was the moment I thought it for the first:  What goes on in that boy's head? 


Gemma was not around for this incident.  When we told her--girl-child that she is, wiser at age 8, as she figures it--she said, "Ew, Josh, you put his tail in your bare mouth?"