How Green Becomes Wood

Dark whistled to Enkidu to call him off, some smug voice in his head pointing out how much harder it would be to train a cat to actually follow a command like that, but instead of voicing it, he lovingly pet his dog and said, "Good boy, Enkidu."

"One day, one of us will actually have an emergency, and he'll be the one to save us," Daizi said, although of course she hoped it wouldn't happen.

"Cooger said Enkidu is a dog who would pull a child out of a well," Dark said, still petting his dog, "I do not know what it means, but I understand the compliment."
 
"I'm not sure I know what that means, either, but I think I understand the intent," Alec said, pushing himself up to sit crosslegged on the floor.

Xander stretched and sat up as well. He thought about commenting how Enkidu alerted when things were wrong, but he decided not to take the conversation that direction. "He's a good boy," he settled on. "I guess he wouldn't really want another dog in the house. That would mean sharing the pets. And dropped baby food."
 
"He's also seven years old," Daizi pointed out gently, "I think technically that means this is the first year of him being a senior dog. I think he's probably going to live until at least thirteen, which means he's still got essentially half of his life left, but it still makes it difficult to keep throwing off what he's familiar with. I love all animals, but I love the ones who are mine the most, because they're the ones whose happiness I'm directly responsible for. And he's been so patient."

Dark leaned forward and pressed his forward against Enkidu's for a moment, before sitting back again, "He was only three months old when we brought him home."
 
"It only makes sense that you love the animals you own the most. It's like how you might care about all people and don't want to see them come to harm, but you care about your people," Alec said.

Xander watched Dark and Daizi with a small amount of amusement. These two were so dramatic. "He's going to be around for a long time, and he's going to be an old gentlemen escorting guys out who try to date the mini."
 
"I just love him very much," Daizi sighed, "He's like our first baby, our cat came to us when she was older. But he was so little, and sick, because he came from a litter rescued from a puppy mill."

"I do not think he will make it to when Ivy begins to date, German Shepherds typically only live from nine to thirteen, on average," Dark admitted, "But I do think he will live a good while, still. We already had him tested for degenerative myelopathy, since it's so common in German Shepherds and he didn't come from a breeder who would care to check his parents for it, and he only has one copy of the gene, and fortunately he would need two to develop it. That still does not mean he will be here when Ivy is a teenager, though."
 
"Maybe not, but he'll still be a big part of her life for a while yet, won't you, boy?" Alec grinned watching him. "He'll be fully devoted to you two, of course, but because you care about Ivy, he'll care about her."
 
"He already cares about her," Dark replied, still petting his dog, "he cares about you both, too. It is not because we care about you, it is because he sees you every day, so you three are all his people, just like we are."
 
"Sure, but he's still yours first and foremost," Xander said. "He's a good boy who has his pack priorities."

"One hundred percent! But he still loves us like we love him," Alec nodded.
 
"He is a great dog," Dark repeated, and Enkidu looked like he was having the best day of his life with all of the attention he was getting. In Arabic, Dark mentioned a few more loving things to his pet and then let go and stretched while Enkidu happily trotted to the next nearest person for more attention. After a few moments of watching this, Dark went to the kitchen to start working on dinner.
 
Alec and Xander took turns giving Enkidu attention, scratching him in all his favorite places and ruffling his fur. After a bit, Alec got up and followed Dark into the kitchen to help him with dinner.

"You should take him to see them again," he remarked to Dark with zero context. "He'll likely try to come up with something different so it's not old hat, but I think you'd all have a good time."
 
"No, you should take Xander to see the horses again," Alec explained patiently. "Either the ones you went riding on before, or the ones at the stables he goes to. Then Mama could see Big John. I think Xander wants to show him off, but he'd never say."
 
"Oh." Dark replied, wondering how he was supposed to figure that out, "I would be glad to, really. I do not want to decide for him what we do that Friday, but another day, certainly. Unless you think we should ignore what he wanted to do and take him to see horses instead?"
 
"Nah, I just thought maybe you could mention it to him in a sly manner that you wouldn't mind horses," Alec told him, trying to figure out how he could help in the kitchen. "He might still say to go somewhere else."
 
Alec considered the question. "I haven't fully decided. I would like to do something nature oriented, I think, but I am not sure what. Maybe some autumnal flower gardens or something? Then again, indoor activities are more reliable when it comes to weather."
 
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"Flower gardens are lovely, but I think we will see them regardless, with all of our other autumnal activities," Dark pointed out, although he knew Daizi would be delighted by the experience, "and I feel we see flowers often, I would hate for it to not feel special. Is there anything you would want to try, but have not?"
 
"That would be nice, but it would need to be something musical or three dimensional, so Daizi can participate. And unfortunately I do not think there are many dance lessons for trios, but surely we can find a music class or some," He waved one hand, "more fine-arts oriented class she can participate in just as easily as either of us."
 
Alec thought for a bit. Something art related that his mother could join in. Music was an obvious and wonderful answer, but what about something new? Who had he talked to recently about art? Then he brightened as a memory popped into his head. "Pottery! How about pottery?"
 
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