Who's a good boy? Who's the verryy werrry bestest boy? Zante is! Yes, you are! Yes, you really weally are!

Have I mentioned that Zante is a good boy? Well, he is. He was gentle with all the toddlers at the party we went to this weekend, and he's almost single-pawdedly responsible for significantly reducing my daughter's fear of dogs. He's a calm, loyal, and loving dog. And that rich chocolate coat combined with his sad expressive eyes don't hurt neither.

Zante is a good boy.

So, naturally, I have to give him lots of scratching and petting. He'll trot over to me and wriggle his way between my legs so that it's easy for me to reach down and scratch his butt. Oh, man, that's a little slice of heaven for Zante. And if I'm sitting somewhere, he'll nudge my hand with his snout, as if to say, "Hey, you with the hands, get to scratching. Idle hands, waste not, want not, or however that expression goes.... Attaboy, Handsy, that's what we're paying you for!"

He's not so good with the idioms.

And the other day when my sister in law was out of the house, Daisy and I successfully took Zante for a walk to the park. We gave him lots of chances to stop and smell the faded odor of other dogs' urine. Ahhhhhh, that's the stuff. When we got to the park, we let him off his leash so that he could greet all the other doggies. If Zante could describe his trip to the park in his own words, I think he'd say this:

A dog! I saw a dog and then I ran over as fast as I could to smell his butt! It was great! And then I saw another dog! So I ran over as fast as I could and smelled his butt! Fantastic! I chased him around real good until I saw a dog whose butt really needed sniffing! Irresistable! Meanwhile Handsy kept throwing my ball and yelling something like "Kvetch!" or "Felch!", but then I saw this dog AND HE HAD A BUTT! Mmmm mmmm mmmm! Then we had to go so I peed on a tree so they wouldn't forget me! Then I crapped near a bush! Awesome!

I should get so excited. About anything!