Look, it's the circle of life. Hakuna Matata or whatever. This is the new puppy Wicket:

Wicket and I went to Prospect Park with Ranjit and Jon to burn off energy and work on our gamboling problem. While we played, a very little boy and his mom wandered over to watch us. I said to the little boy, "Would you like to pet the puppy? He's very nice."

And the boy said, in a very thick possibly-Hungarian accent, "But he's a vampire!"

"No!" I said. "He's just a sweet baby."

His mother explained that they were pretending that all dogs in the park were vampires. I amended. "You're right, he is a vampire, but a particularly friendly vampire."

Little Gypsy decided it was okay to pet and confided that he had a special song that kept him safe from the vampires anyway. I asked if he could teach it to me - to keep me safe too - and he whispered conspiratorially, "Eet's 'I Been Verking on zee Railroat!!"

Goddamn, I just miss that dog's sharky brown face and her sassy-pants way.

1996-2007

There has never been a better, browner dog. There is a soft, furry part of my heart missing tonight.