Me: Stella…Stella…Stella!
Stella: Me…Me…Me…Yay, me! Wait? What?
Me: Not everything that is in my hand belongs in your mouth.
Stella: Why not?
Me: Because not everything I hold in my hand is edible. You just tried to eat your metal rabies vaccination tag.
Stella: I’m sorry. It was shiny and it looked delicious. Everything looks delicious to me.
Me: You need to exercise a little self control. When you see that I am holding something, wait for me to let you know if it is for you. Don’t jump. Don’t grab.
Stella: Aaaggghhh! But it takes so much time. Sometimes you walk around and around and do stuff and I patiently follow you to make sure you don’t lose a treat or drop it on the floor where some other bulldog may accidentally find it when it really belongs to me.
Me: Think of it as just another human privilege. And you know that I would never let the other bulldogs deprive you of your treats. That would not be fair and I want to be fair to you all.
Stella: Thank you, Lady Human. I think it would be fair if you let me taste test all treats from now on. I believe the others will benefit from my expert taste buds. I am a connoisseur of treats.
Me: Oh, really?
Stella: Yes, and I promise to exercise A LITTLE self control and not to try to eat my vaccination tags from now on.
Me: That is very reasonable of you.
Stella: Bulldogs are very reasonable creatures.
Me: Well…trying to eat a metal disc…Reasonable? I’m not so sure.
Stella: Once I would have tasted it, I would have realized that it was metal and I would have spit it out.
Me: Now that is reasonable.
Copyright 2016 H.J. Hill All Rights Reserved.
