top dog

we had the pleasure of taking care of my parents' black lab, omni, for a few days last week while they were out of town.  he's fourteen years old, almost totally deaf, and sure takes his own sweet time while relieving himself in the woods.  and don't even get me started on the tufts of dog hair that are forming tumbleweeds in every corner of our house.

but one perk to dog-sitting is that omni retrieves the newspaper each morning from the end of the driveway and delivers it at our feet.  chris was explaining this to susanna last sunday over breakfast.  "on a rainy day like this," chris said, "isn't it so nice that omni will go out and get the paper for us?"

"how does he know how to do that?" she asked.  the only trick super knows is how to quickly jump off the couch when she realizes she's been caught, so susanna was obviously a bit confused.

"well, pops trained omni.  he showed him how to pick up the paper with his mouth and bring it back."

"oh," she said, and still seemed confused.  "does pops get the paper with his mouth too?"