A Sad Parting
Kid 2 always wanted a dog. For as long as I can remember, she's asked me if we could get a dog. "I'll take good care of it, I promise," she'd always say, several times a week. I don't care for dogs. My parents had a couple of dogs when I was growing up but I never liked them. I was never interested in taking them for walks or spending much time with them. When one of our dogs, Jeremy, ran away, I was curious about what happened to him but never grieved his disappearance. I was sort of afraid that he got buried under a ton of snow and ice, after about 50 cm of the stuff came crashing off our roof during the spring thaw. I was dreading the spring, when we'd find him after the snow melted. But fortunately, Jeremy never suffered that fate: he simply disappeared. My family also liked to keep cats and I had a bond with them. And when DW and I moved in together, we started getting cats and have always had at least one in the house ever since. When Kid 2 knew...
