Why can’t I place it?
“Chili!” My girl pet slides to a stop and drops to her knees, hugging me around the neck. “Silly dog. What’s gotten into you?”
“Ho ho—no?” the big red pet finishes as I bare my teeth at him.
My pets look at me.
Then back to him.
Then back at me.
My girl pet cracks up.
My boy pet sighs. “Santa, can you give us a minute?”
Santa.
They call himSanta.
I call himthe megalomaniac who should be put in doggy prison.
Who trusts a pet with a beard and a suit that smell like that?
The big red pet shuffles away.
Of course he does.
He’s already planted the bad things in the present.
I start to leap for it again, but my boy pet catches me by the collar and holds the present to our girl pet. “For you, my love.”
She beams at him.
I growl.
He shushes me.
I growl again just on principle.
“Can’t blame him,” Aunt Lorelei pet says. “Santa’s creepy.”
“Oh, he is not,” my girl pet says as she opens the small box.
Her mouth forms an O. “Dane,” she whispers.
He’s still holding me, but he gets even closer, right down on my level.
He’s not facing me. He’s facing her, holding me behind him. “Amanda,” he says just as softly.
“Is this . . . ?”
“The ring that I hope you’ll wear for the rest of our lives?” he finishes.
“Dane.”
“Marry me.”
It’s a good thing I have excellent hearing, or I wouldn’t know what they’re saying. More pets are gathering around us, and I can hear them asking each other if they can hear anything.
