Photo by Angela Kirk

After a relaxing weekend with Doc and the family at the lake, the last thing I expected to find when we returned home was that I was no longer the top dog on the street. It just goes to show you that you can’t be off your game for even a minute or a cute little puppy named Norman will move in next door when you aren’t looking. How I am supposed to compete with a 10 week old puppy for goodness sake? At the ripe old age of 5, I now feel like a has been. What’s an old dog to do?

Feeling betrayed even by Doc as I watched her gush over Norman, I found myself entering into a dark place. I moped around for a few days feeling sorry for myself as I watched the attention shift from me to the new guy. I knew Doc noticed, but she didn’t say a thing. She just watched me in that therapeutic way and I knew she was observing, but not intervening. I have to admit even that started making me mad. She’s a therapist, why isn’t she trying to help me work through this?

Then last evening, after Doc came home from running errands, she called me to come outside. There was the next door neighbor with Norman and he was trying to stick his little fluffy head through the slats in the fence. His tail started wagging when he saw me and he hopped up and down with excitement. I had to admit that he was a cute little bugger. The neighbor explained that after the veterinarian found out that I was Norman’s next door neighbor that she told them “Grover will be the perfect dog to help socialize Norman in the canine world, especially with big dogs.”

At that moment everything turned around for me and I felt so proud to be asked to help raise Norman. I just had one question for Doc, ” Why didn’t you ask me what was wrong when you saw that I was so distressed over the Norman thing?” “Because, she said, sometimes you just need the space to work through your feelings on your own. You are old enough and wise enough to do that now. If you get stuck, I am always here to listen Grover, all you need to do is ask for help. Besides, I knew you would figure out that your new role is help raise this puppy, a job only you can do.”

After all of the excitement, I was tired and decided to go to bed. As I drifted off to sleep I realized that I was indeed an adult now and I feel proud of my new role as teacher.