7.10.15 When they began to notice

When my kids were growing up, we rescued an Aussi pup. Blue merle with copper, fur too thick for any shears, so in the summer I would sit at the endless soccer games with scissors and a bag, slowly trimming her beautiful locks. 

When my youngest were seven and eight, they got the job of walking her around the block. By then, she was 10. 

They would complain that she stopped and sniffed and took so long. I told them "Look, she's reading the paper. She's on the phone with all her friends. How about you give her three short stops, and two long. And then? You can scoot her along. " 

That helped things. And, they began to notice what it was like, to be her. 

They began to watch how she could smell so many things that they could not.

She could hear so much that they had no idea of.

They began to notice what a treat it was for her, taking her time, smelling the news, on her daily excursions. 

Oh. I still brought her down to Fitzgerald Lake, and the dog park at the state hospital, to meander and sniff and race about with others.

But from then on, at the dinner table, or at bedtime, my kids would tell me. All the things that Friendship really enjoyed that day.