It is a cool evening here in LA with grey skies and a breeze that is shaking the leaves on the avocado trees out back. I’m sitting in a little outdoor alcove, which affords privacy under a canopy of green from a twenty-foot maple tree planted near the garage. I hear honking out front, and the swish of traffic as the workday draws to a close for most people. I see the yellow of Myers lemons to my right from a five-foot tree, and the green of limes from another tree planted in a big pot. We have received a few fat raindrops, but precious few, and now they have dried up in the breeze. I can hear indistinct voices from a neighbor’s back yard, and laughter, and can tell these are women who are friends by the gentleness in their tone.
Tomorrow we add another canine member to our household, our little foster dog, Sammie. She is my daughter Sarah’s Scotty and she has been banished from Sarah’s apartment by an uncompromising apartment manager, who tolerates other residents’ dogs, but who has become hard-nosed with Sarah’s arrival as a new renter. We will keep little Sammie until January when Sarah will take her with her when she returns to Texas for 2 months of clinical rotations. After that, we’ll see where Sarah’s life takes her (and Sammie) next.
Today, my husband has been cuddling Cordelia, our Welsh Corgie, with the protectiveness of an expected father about to bring a second child into the household. While I am certain Cordelia will be happier with a little doggie friend, Ray seems slightly apprehensive, as if Sammie’s arrival with cause little Cordie to feel displaced. We have joked that perhaps we need to get a little Scotty stuffed animal to aid Cordelia in the transition just as we gave daughter Sarah a baby doll on the day of the birth of her little sister Elizabeth. At least I was joking. I am beginning to wonder if Ray won’t dash out and buy the little stuffed dog so his darling Cordie won’t be traumatized.
Ray admits he’s never had these sorts of feelings about a dog before. These “I adore you,” thoughts that shift a dog from animal to slightly human. But he is enjoying the love, I can tell, and Cordelia certainly is. What I know from life experience is that the more love required, the more love there is. Just the same as with babies. When you can’t imagine that you could ever love a second child as much as the first, you come to realize that you love them both more than you ever thought you could and there is even more love for a third child, should she come along. Unlike almost any other commodity on earth, love expands exponentially with demand.
I am looking forward to our new addition, however temporary she might be. I know Cordelia will thrive on the company, and Ray and I will topple over into love again for this little dog.
Some people could say we’re sorely in need of grandchildren to shower this attention on. This may be true, though that seems a distance away at the moment. For now, we’ll just enjoy what we are being given, and that gift, short or long-term, goes by the name of Sammie.
I can’t wait until tomorrow.
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