I think it only fair if Fate chews on my hand, I can threaten to chew on her leg. I would bite it, except I don’t want all that dog hair in my mouth, and I know where that leg has been all day. I admit it’s an odd game, but what can I tell you? Fate and I just touch the mad parts of one another sometimes, and we would both miss it. In the news business, they often say it’s no news when dog bites man, but big news when man bites dog.

Some animal people are quite humorless about these things, but a good friend told me recently that my mission in life is to poke and prod. That sounds obnoxious, I said, yes, he replied, it is.