I’d never experienced anything like it. Even Logan had to admit that, while he had seen the phenomenon before, this time it was dramatically more intense, personal and confusing. And of course Bear, still young and new to being part of our family, had insufficient life context to make sense of any of it.
Looking back, we probably should have realized that something big was about to happen. For months, our humans had been talking with and about their eldest female offspring and her mate who live far away in a place called “Denn-verr.” Our humans had been excitedly planning to make a trip to this Denn-verr at a specific time when, all of a sudden, they departed in a big hurry, leaving us (quite contentedly) in the good care of our favorite non-family female human.
As Logan sleeps a lot these days, I am principally responsible for Bear’s education in what it is like to live as a dog in a human family. So I made a special effort to try to understand and explain to him what was happening.
Here’s what I learned. The male and female humans in Denn-ver had had a female human puppy, their word for which is “bay-bee.” Since the female who had given birth had once been our humans’ first bay-bee, and since our female human had been the first bay-bee of her human parents, the female of which lives right down the street from us, this bay-bee is the fourth female in a row (the humans call each instance of this a “gen-er-ay-shun”), all of whom are alive today. That seems to be a big thing in the human world. It certainly is making our humans very happy.
I promptly shared this news with Logan and Bear. Logan reminded me that the female who had given birth was once very sick but is now much, much better, which makes it an even more joyous event (I later heard our humans refer to it as almost a “meer-akl”).
Our humans returned home in very good spirits and have been telling the good news to everyone they know. I heard them say that the bay-bee’s name is “Isabelle,” which is often shortened to “Izzy.” Izzy was born earlier than expected, and as a result weighed four pounds, six ounces at birth. (Logan says that’s not a problem, because while she is small now, she has lots of time to get bigger.) She spent about four days in a special hospital unit (Logan says that’s not very long, or unusual) and will continue to get supplemental oxygen for a short while. I overheard our female human tell a friend, “Izzy is beautiful, eating well and gaining weight, and her parents are very, very happy, even if a bit sleep-deprived.”
Over the past few years, our humans have increasingly been using something called “zoom,” which allows them to see and speak with other humans who are not nearby. Logan, Bear, and I are often with them in the room when they do this, so we get to see and hear everything.
One day, the Denn-verr humans and Izzy were on this “zoom.” Seeing Izzy, Bear was confused. “I am a puppy,” he exclaimed, “and that does not look like me at all.” Logan and I both chuckled at that. Logan respoded, “Humans and dogs may look quite different, but we share many things in common, like being born. These shared experiences are just some of the reasons why we bind together in such wonderful relationships." Bear thought about that for a moment, then asked Logan, “Well, then, how are puppies and bay-bees made?”
At which point I quietly padded out of the room, very happy to leave that lesson to Logan.
