Interview with the dog

We had an exciting Saturday morning being interviewed by a prospective dog. I had worked myself into a state over this dumb dog—I didn’t sleep well on Thursday, on Friday night I couldn’t sleep at all so I came downstairs for a while. Finally, D-Day (D for Dog) arrived. We were waiting on the front steps when "Tank" and his owners pulled into the driveway. He bounded out of the back hatch of the SUV and our first thought was: Jeepers! He’s big!

Anyone who has been in our house probably wouldn’t recognize it after we staged it for this dog. We put four or five chairs in the basement, along with the exercise bike and an end table, all to make the house look bigger to the owners. Kathy had a brilliant idea to collapse the dining room table down to the size of a bistro table which opened up the whole room. In fact, once Tank had settled down, he laid on the dining room rug and filled the whole space. He really is the size of small horse, weighing 135 pounds.

Max was here this weekend, so they got to meet everyone, too. The owners brought their three year old daughter, and she and Max got along famously. They brought down toys and played together while the grownups talked and Tank paced around the house. Near the end of the visit, I took him for a test drive around the block and we did very well. We should know in a week or so if we are the winners.