DECEMBER 16, 2007

A Christmas Tail
By Cassidy Ryan

Bo stretched out on the rug contentedly, letting the warmth from the fire soak into his bones. From under hooded eyelids he watched fat snowflakes drift past the window, eyes closing a little further with every second that passed.

A noise from the direction of the door caught his attention, and he lazily raised his head, curious, but not enough to get up to investigate.

The door opened and his son, Pup, bounded into the room with the limitless energy of a youngster, shaking himself free of melting snow, and leaping about enthusiastically.

Bo huffed and laid his head back on his front paws. Kids!

His head came back up again, however, this time with considerably more interest, when the door opened wider and his humans struggled through, carrying a tall tree between them.

His ears perked up and he yipped his approval. They were good people, his humans. It was very thoughtful of them to bring a tree indoors so that he and Pup didn’t have to go out in all that cold snow to pee.

Pup was bouncing around in front of them, and Hayden, the small one with the fluffy hair who always smelled like food, was laughing and trying to push Pup out of the way. Pup just licked Hayden’s hand and tugged on the leg of his trousers.

In spite of his son’s excitement, they got the big tree into the room, and put it into a tub by the window. Cal, the big one who could throw a stick really far and liked to rough-house, filled the tub with dirt and patted it down. Bo cocked his head to the side. Hmm, very convenient. The ground had been too cold and hard recently to dig a deep enough hole to bury his favorite chew toy.

Pup ran in a circle around the tree a few times, then came over to the fire to join Bo. His coat was cool and damp, but Bo made no protest as his son snuggled in at his side.

Bo watched with some interest as his humans did that thing with their mouths. They did it a lot. They would lick at each other -- he understood that, he liked to lick Juno -- but then they would open their mouths and crush them together. It was almost as though they were trying to eat each other. Very strange.

One of them made an odd little moaning sound that was starting to become familiar to Bo. He heard it a lot in the night. His humans would close their bedroom door, and soon afterward there were sounds like one of them was in pain. It had caused Bo some concern at first, but every morning they would come out of the bedroom and they would be smiling, so he had stopped worrying.

They stumbled past him, arms and legs all tangled up as they moved in the direction of the bedroom. They were tired a lot these days. They spent a lot of time in the bedroom.

But Bo knew that when they woke from their nap they would be happy, and generous with the sugar cookies.

Bo settled down for a nap of his own, ignoring the loud rumble that escaped Pup, which was followed by a less than pleasant smell. But his eyes popped open again when the bedroom door opened and Hayden appeared again. Wearing only shorts he rushed across the room, stopping on his way to rub a hand over Bo’s head. He scratched behind Bo’s ear, making him whine with pleasure.

Bo liked Hayden. Apart from the fact that he’d been making all those sugar cookies, he made Cal smile. Cal hadn’t smiled nearly as much before Hayden. Now he smelled happy.

“Merry Christmas, boy.” Hayden smelled happy too. He also smelled like Cal. Sometimes it was difficult for Bo to tell the difference between their scents.

Hayden straightened up and fetched something from the mantle. It glinted, catching Bo’s eye. Bo frowned. It was the silver circles Cal carried when he was at work. Bo had seen him put them on the hands of a man who had smelled angry. It was confusing for Bo, because neither Hayden nor Cal had smelled angry. People were not easy for a dog to understand.

Hayden bounced back in the direction of the bedroom, reminding Bo quite a lot of Pup. He was rattling the circles in his hands and singing a song about bells.

Before the bedroom door closed behind Hayden, Bo heard a loud burst of laughter from Cal. It was a nice sound. Bo settled his head back on his paws and smiled. His son was at his side, his humans where laughing and he had his very own indoor tree. It wasn’t a bad life.

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