Summer of Joey.

Every summer brings one special puppy to the Greenbelt..... the large park area surrounding the bayou that runs down the center of our subdivision. I've been walking the trail around the Greenbelt every evening for the past few months now, sometimes by myself, other times with V next door. On some nights, the Greenbelt is sprinkled with just walkers and joggers. On other nights, there are skate-boarders and bicyclists competing for space on the three-foot-wide walking path.

No matter the traffic pattern, the Greenbelt gives everyone an opportunity to see who and what's new in the neighborhood as you walk the path around the pool and tennis courts, the soccer fields and the basketball court, the playground and the gazebos. Most importantly, you can meet everyone's dog, being that the Greenbelt is the place to be if you have a four-legged kid.

And that brings me back to the special puppy named Joey. Every summer on the Greenbelt brings out the new puppies, and this is definitely the Summer of Joey. He is a bright and happy Border Collie, mostly white with large black splotches artfully arranged all over his cute little puppy fur. Joey is friendly and playful, as all puppies are, but there's just something about this little ball of black and white fur that makes everyone want to go out and get a puppy of their own.

Us included. Looking at little Joey, I can forget all the middle-of-the-night trips into the backyard with our own Gracie. I would be out there with a flashlight, so the overhead spotlights wouldn't disturb the neighbors at three o'clock in the morning. And can I really forget all the times Gracie would chase our cats from one end of the living room to the other..... around and around the sofa like a four-footed car race. And the endless hours of puppy-training.... Sit, Gracie, sit! Stay... stay... good girl! For the longest time, I believed Gracie would think her real name was "No Gracie No."

As I said, watching little Joey romp in the grass and dance around your legs makes you forget all the aggravating puppy stuff that you go through with a twelve-week-old Border Collie, who has more energy than you can ever hope to contain and control and you just count the hours till you're back at the dog trainer's and he's teaching you how to keep your cute little bundle of fur from making the cats go flying over the sofa so they can jump on top of the buffet and you're keeping your fingers crossed each time that they don't send the antique lamp crashing down to the floor.

No matter how much we love to see little Joey in the park (and he seems to recognize us now) we will not (will not, will not, will NOT) look for another Border Collie puppy. Gracie wouldn't be happy with another dog in this house anyway. She's a one-dog dog, and we already know that. And it took her just a little more than a year to quit chasing the cats, and now she's very protective of them and lets them cuddle up to her and the only time she'll try and "herd" them is when she sees them getting too close to the front door. Somehow, she knows that the cats aren't allowed outside the house.

This is Joey's first summer. He is the cutest, friendliest puppy... the star of the Greenbelt. His family consists of two parents, a little girl about 6 years old, and a three-year-old boy. They walk around part of the Greenbelt every night with Joey, stopping at the park so the kids can play on the swings, then making their way very very slowly towards home because every single person on the Greenbelt just has to stop in their tracks and bend down close to Joey and tell him what a cute, adorable, happy, sweet, precious puppy he truly is.

And little Joey is eating this all up. His tail wags, his mouth opens up in a drooly, toothy smile, his eyes look at you as if you're the light of his little puppy-life... as if he's never seen anything or anybody more interesting than you are, and you go home wanting to get a new puppy of your own because the little puppy-light in Joey's eyes reminds you of the puppy-days with Gracie.

We will not, will not, will not, will NOT get another puppy.