It’s almost creepy, how easy and quiet two dogs are. They fit neatly into the car, they sleep in their beds, the house is mostly silent. You put on their leashes, they go for a walk. I leave to go without them, they look at me and shrug, all right. I get home, they’re all, cool. I make their food, they eat it.

Otterpop took up a lot of space, made a lot of noise, did all the things. Went all the places! Wanted to eat the food! Wanted to stay up all night! Wanted to get in the car! Wanted to get out of the car! Wanted to walk! Didn’t want to walk! Everything was a Thing! If she needed a thing she had to crash through the other things to get to the thing! The thing! The thingthingthingthingthing!

Me and my two dogs now, we still do the things. Right now, maybe even more things. We can walk further, ride the bike more, run all the way to the beach. Move at a much faster clip, go back to the one hour loop in the woods. They can go to more places, or stay home if I want to go without a dog. I can day drink with my friend who’s allergic to dog hair in her kitchen, knowing they’re snoozing till I get home. All the things for them, just fine. They trust my opinion on what we’re going to do and follow all the rules. They believe that I’m coming home. They’re actually so very easy. And quiet. And well behaved. Who knew dogs could be like that, maybe I didn’t even notice they were like that all along, because always so much Otterpop and her Things.

Gooey and Banksy are really, really good dogs.