Out Of The Mouth Of 4 Year Olds…

My son, Noah, has a very kind heart.  The day Chili Dawg came home as a tripawd, Noah waited for us to get Chili to his dog bed and then immediately sat down next to him and stroked his head.  Every day we left the house to go somewhere, Noah made sure he gave Chili a kiss on the head and told him to, “feel better”.

Now that I’m on summer break, we have been able to move at our own pace during the day and the kids and dogs have had plenty of time to play outside together.  The Chili Dawg has enjoyed “being beautiful” outside, basking in the sunshine next to his brother Finch.

The other day, Noah said to me, “Mom, we’re going to need lots of water and dirt.”  I was a bit confused, so I asked, “For what?”  “For when it’s time to grow Chili Dawg’s leg back. At school my teacher said we need the sun, dirt, and water to make things grow.”  “Sunshine (that’s Noah’s nickname), Chili’s leg isn’t going to grow back.”  “Why?”  Oh boy, how do I explain this one, I thought to myself.  “Because Chili’s leg was hurting him, so we had to have it taken off and it isn’t able to grow back.  But it’s okay, because Chili doesn’t need to have four legs to do everything that he used to do, right?”  “Right, Momma.”

Today at lunch, my daughter had the plate with a dog on it and she kept saying “woof” over and over again, which led Noah to say, “Mom, if I was a dog, I’d be a dog with only 3 legs.  You know why?”  “Why?”  “Because then I’d be as cool as Chili Dawg.  There aren’t a lot of dogs with 3 legs.”