Fetch!

It is such a timeless icon of childhood. Playing fetch with the family dog.  You've seen it in movies, on TV, in commercials, and frankly we can all probably visualize it without any effort.  It is a balmy late summer afternoon.  We see a young boy clad in dungarees a striped shirt and white sneakers, perhaps wearing a red baseball cap.  He is in a yard with perfect green grass and a white picket fence, holding a ball in his hand.  Dappled late-afternoon sun peeks through the trees.  A sparkling clean dog is nearby, sitting rapt with joy, transfixed on the child's hand waiting for the boy to release the ball and fulfill the dog's one desire... to run, fetch the ball and start the process all over again.  Classic Americana.

At our house it works a little differently.

There is a ball (blue with a squeaker), a boy, and a dog.  But that's where the similarities end.  You see, things in our alternate universe don't quite fit the iconic mold.  First of all, it is winter so we're inside.  In the kitchen.  Boy and dog both milling around on the floor (along with the 18-year-old cat who is ignoring everyone but keeping one eye open in case any good tidbits are available) while mom cooks dinner.  The dog needs a bath, and the boy is crawling feverishly around the room, making regular breaks to try and play in the dog's water dish and/or grab the cat's collar with it's amazingly fascinating green bell.

The boy is too young to really properly throw the ball, so instead the dog picks up the ball in her mouth and throws it somewhere in the general vicinity of the boy.  The boy crawls merrily over and picks up the ball, gleefully holding the prize in his hand, giving it a chew or two for good measure.  The dog then prances over, gently takes the ball from the boy's hand and tosses it again.  Crawl, pick up, toss... repeat, repeat, repeat.

Someday a few years from now I'm sure they'll fit more into the typical mold, with Colin throwing the ball and Sydney fetching.  Maybe we'll even have that fenced-in backyard and a white picket fence.  But I don't see how it could get any more endearing and entertaining than their current game of fetch.