Lily and the Octopus

by Steven Rowley

“Well, he didn’t break the hug, either, so we were just standing there like two stroke victims propping each other up!”

I have to be better about living in the not knowing.

She always wants to be the cannon or the battleship or the “shot glass.” (I haven’t had the heart to tell her she’s been playing that piece upside down and it’s actually a thimble.

A mommy and daddy who have a baby get stuck with whatever baby they get. But adoptive parents choose their baby, and so they love them that much more.

think of how dogs are witnesses. How they are present for our most private moments, how they are there when we think of ourselves as alone. They witness our quarrels, our tears, our struggles, our fears, and all of our secret behaviors that we have to hide from our fellow humans. They witness without judgment.

This is my job. This is my moment. I will not be a coward, I will not be afraid. I will not be someone who can love only so much. I will not be someone who is not whole or fully present when things get tough. I will not let others do the heavy lifting for me. I will not be distracted by a text message. Wringing the piss out of this dog I love—this is my Everest. This is on me.

“It’s natural, as our loved ones age, to start grieving their loss. Even before we lose them.”

since she entered my life, has taught me everything I know about patience and kindness and meeting adversity with quiet dignity and grace. No one makes me laugh harder, or want to hug them tighter. You have truly lived up to the promise of man’s best friend.”

“Terms of endearment are names or phrases that you use to address someone that you feel great affection for.” The wind picks up and we sit quietly for a moment. “You have a lot of them for me,” she observes. “That’s because I have a lot of affection for you.”

“If you spend your entire life trying to cheat death, there’s no time left over to embrace life.”

“Dogs are always good and full of selfless love. They are undiluted vessels of joy who never, ever deserve anything bad that happens to them.

One night it rained very hard, and I was determined to get you to pee. I didn’t want to crawl into a warm, dry bed only to have to take you outside again in the middle of the rainy night. You were being stubborn in not peeing, and I was being stubborn in not going back inside until you did, and we were each trying to outstubborn the other.”

Lord Byron’s poem. But the poor Dog, in life the firmest friend, The first to welcome, foremost to defend.