what?

Garth never understood why people claimed that puppies were good for picking up women. A puppy couldn't even pick up one woman whereas Cuddles could easily pick up several.

scar like a snapshot

I have a little scar on my left hand. It's a thin line about an inch long and it has been slowly fading away over the past few years.

Abby gave it to me one cold winter afternoon when we were playing in the backyard. She was a young puppy and scratched my hand with a tooth as she was lunging for the stick we were playing with. It hurt like only a scratch made into cold skin on a wintery day can hurt. I yelled at her, she looked suitably chastised, and we resumed playing.

We used to play in that backyard and chasing each other around the house a lot then. She quickly outgrew the phase where I could, if I had a long enough lead, jump up on top of her dog house as we raced around the house. When I first started doing it, she would zoom right past me. Then one day she stopped and looked up, pleased with herself. The house trick never worked again.

It wasn't long after that cold afternoon that we couldn't really play the chasing games anyway. Abby grew out of the age where I could outrun her. One spring afternoon the chase lasted about 10 feet before she caught me. It was as if she got faster than me before she realized it and then one day ran full speed. We would still play in the backyard, of course, but thereafter it was her rather than me carefully limiting how much speed or power used to make things fun.

Abby was a good dog. I'm a little sad about the scar fading.