Summer Lovin

Sandra B had Danny. Bela has Zico.

They met months back. They were easy acquaintances, if not fast friends. Zico was usually attached at the hip with a small black-and-white creature named Zena. I never actually saw one without the other. Every single evening I ran into a double date: Zico & Zena, Carla & Kathy (the mothers). Bela would 'play' with them, in the sense that she played fetch with me while the two of them romped together, in our vicinity. There was an ease, however, to her with Z & Z. She normally gets possessive when she has a ball in the presence of other dogs. Not with these two. There was a naturalness to the trio.

I enjoyed our 3-man pack and looked forward to running into them, even though Bela never actually played with Zico & Zena. Carla and Kathy knew that I dreamt that Bela would one day run with the Z's, but the odds didn't look good. She's just not the rollicking type, I'd tell them and myself repeatedly, in an attempt to accept it.

I thought Bela had done us in one day when she found smashed birthday cake on the cement. She was lapping it up, happily, when Zico came over to see what it was all about. Bela immediately turned into one of the hyenas from the Lion King. Her head flew up, her teeth bared, and she snarled. Zico (rightly) snapped back at her for a moment and I went ballistic, reprimanding her. The two of them heeded my voice and (seemingly, bregrudgingly on Bela's part) gave up the fight. I totally lost it. In that one greedy move, she had smashed my dreams of the 6 of us playing while the sun set, while the birds sang...hell - on a yacht! I apologized to both Zico and Carla, then grabbed her leash and tore out of the park. I shamed her - first with words ..."Nevermind that Zico is one of your only true dog friends; nevermind that that wasn't your effing cake in the first place!"..., then with silence - all the way home. When I arrived home, I sat in a chair and cried. Well, I didn't cry. I wailed. I wailed for all my lost dreams, all my missed chances, all I'd ever feared I'd fucked up. Bela had done nothing but be a dog. I let her little sass act give rise to all my anxieties, and all my incompetencies.

Needless to say, no relationships were harmed due to the cake. Carla is a rational person -- and Zico is A DOG. He forgot (and/or, forgave) the fight about 15 seconds later. And so we all remained friends.

This summer, Zena has been absent. And in her wake, Bela has given herself to Zico in ways we never thought she would. She plays! She runs, she chases, she rolls and grazes!

Multiple nights a week, Carla and I send off texts, organizing meetups. The location never changes, the time only slightly. We meet in the heat and we chat while our dogs play.

July was so hot, sometimes they would just sit and stare at each other.

Summer has never been a bright spot for me. I'm usually pretty pissed off for the affected months. All activity is deemed unbearable, save the spooning of sherbert into my mouth.

But this summer was different. Bela had Zico, which gave me something I needed. A place to go and sit under the stars, while my dog ran about. A person to talk to. A joy in the summer that I had not previously had.

And while I look forward to the coming of fall, I will always look back to this summer as one of the finest.