title bout

Our rough and tumble macho baby Ben has apparently met his match. This past Sunday afternoon The Ben was introduced to his canine-equivalent: a puppy named Buckaroo who was every bit as energetic, fearless, and cute (though with quite a bit more hair, refined motor skills, and slightly superior bowel control). Just as The Ben spends his days taunting and tormenting our poor house cat, Buckaroo spent this particular afternoon freaking-out our humbled Benjamin. Buckaroo is the offspring of Tony and Roocharoo Cosenza, our friends from Iowa who, despite criticism from family members, named their dog for their favorite adult toy. Our two children met in the Cosenza’s puppified family room and sparred with nipping teeth and screeching, tentative laughter. By the time we left, Ben was all too tuckered, leaving Buckaroo drooling for more baby to bat around. And though he left without any visible scars, the debasement Ben suffered was evident while avoiding eye contact and falling silently asleep in the back seat of the car.

It’s funny how similar puppies and babies can be. I suppose I would have to imagine babies are a bit more difficult to rear, mainly because they live longer and require stuff like Playstations and college educations, but raising a puppy is pretty difficult too. At one point while listening to a conversation about picking up dog-doo in the yard, I actually sat there and thought to myself Damn, I would hate to have to do that every day. Glad I have a baby instead of a dog! Then the absurdity of the thought was slammed home as my nostrils caught wind of the Huggies crawling around my feet. And like Tony said, if things get really bad, he can always just go and dump the dog in a forest on the other side of town.

In the morning our little guy woke up and took out his previous evening’s frustrations on the cat. I have no idea why she keeps coming back to him for more abuse, but I have a feeling it may be because she expects Ben to learn from his experiences with Buckaroo so that Ben might protect her from other doggies as he gets stronger and wiser. Or maybe she sticks around Ben because she knows Anna and I are never far away. Then again, maybe she just likes the smell of dirty Huggies.