White Dogs with Black Spots

Mary had wanted me [Diane] to document some of the conversations I have had with Sofia. Here is a recent one. am afraid there are many I am not remembering.

Papa and I arrived in La Crosse around 8:30 PM on a Friday evening. Sofi was still awake and ran out to greet us, requesting that I come and sleep in her room when I was ready to go to bed. I did that, attempting to bring Jake to sleep with me on the trundle. That did not go very well, as Jake was more interested in crawling underneath Sofi’s bed to find various toys hiding there. I could hear a lot of chewing going on so banned Jake to the living room to sleep with Papa for the rest of the night.

In the morning, while the trundle was still pulled out, I asked Sofi to help me retrieve the toys found under the bed. She was able to drag out stuffed toys, books, colors, and “little people” belonging to various toy sets or play houses. Then came a flat, oval piece of red plastic which neither of us could identify until another little people was found. This one, though, wasn’t intact. The hair was missing (now recognizable as a flat, oval piece of red plastic) and the spindle once holding the round head to the body was loose allowing the head and body to be pulled apart. The head was covered by teeth marks.

We both knew who the destroyer had been.

Sofi: “Jake is a bad dog. She ruins toys. You should take her back to her owner."

Gma: “I should? But I am Jake’s owner.”

Sofi: “She needs to go back. Those white dogs with the black spots are trouble. But you could get a black dog. They are good dogs. But those white dogs with the black spots aren’t good.”