Nothing Bao likes better than curling up with a good book ... or someone who's read one.

Amazingly, this photo wasn't posed. I put a copy of Sea Changes down on the sofa, and then the telephone rang and I went into the other room to answer it. When I came back, there was Bao, snuggling up to my other "baby".

He hasn't actually read Sea Changes, yet. But that's okay. Bao doesn't read. His interests tend to be ofalactory rather than literary.

Speaking of which, we've got this awful woman in our neighborhood who goes ballistic if Bao lifts a leg on her pebble mulch. (We don't have lawns, in Tucson) She doesn't mind any of the other dogs having a go, and they all do. But she doesn't like me, because she thinks I'm what she calls an intellectual. I've sort of become her bete noir. Actually, she needs to get a life. But that's another story.

Anyhow, in the interests of keeping the peace, Bao and I usually walk on the other side of the street. But yesterday, I forgot. It was very early, just past dawn. Nobody was up yet, and she wasn't even at home. And it was just a couple of drops.

Nonetheless, this morning she was waiting for us screaming, Your dog used my front yard as a toilet! I can tell! I knew it the minute I drove in the driveway!

I didn't say anything but I couldn't help wondering, How can she tell? I mean, really. Does she get down on her hands and knees and crawl around on the pebbles, smelling the different samples of dog pee? I was tempted to ask, but I didn't.