ten things to like about Pearl

1. When it comes to sports, she’s a team player. She never quarrels about what position she has to play. If Patrick and I are tossing the ball to each other and then to Pearl, she happily catches it and gives it back to the right person in the rotation. If we’re hitting a tennis ball with a wiffle bat (which is fun for about 4 minutes), she cheerfully scrambles to catch the hit ball, then brings it back to the pitcher.

2. She plays fair. When Patrick and I are both throwing her a ball or frisbee, she returns the object to each of us in turn.

3. She does all of the above even though she’s obsessed with balls and frisbees. She doesn’t like being left off the team, however, but that’s a matter for the other list.

4. No matter how excited she is, you can say, “Put the ball in my hand,” and she’ll put it right in your hand. If you drop it, she’ll get it and put it back in your hand. If you don’t want the ball and someone else does, you can say, “Give the ball to X,” and she will.

5. From a purely subjective point of view (that is, as far as I’m aware, no one else considers this a virtue), Pearl makes odd little noises in her throat when she takes food from my hand, little snorfling sounds that never cease to amuse me.

6. Because she knows the names of her toys, she can bring you a big rubber chicken with all the triumph of having done a job exceptionally well, which indeed she has; all you had to say was, “Pearl, go find your chicken.” For most of us, looking triumphant with a foolish yellow chicken in our mouths would be impossible.

7. No matter what hour of the night, if I wake and she sees me, she makes one of those little scuffy noises in her throat and licks my face.

8. Pearl is a world-class dreamer: she runs, she barks, she kicks, she furrows her brow—often and energetically, which is no wonder, I suppose, for a dog whose mind and body are as active as hers.

9. She will do anything for food. Which is also true of me.

10.She is always around, a good half of which aroundness belongs on the other list, but a good part of it belongs here, too, where it means that right now, she is sleeping on the bed next to where I’m sitting. If I get up and go somewhere, she’ll come along. Not everybody likes a dog who follows them around, but I have dogs (and cats, too) for just this reason-- for the sound of soft breathing just a few feet to my right, for the look of fur ruffling slightly in the breeze coming through the window.