I read a popular book about a man and his family dog a few years ago and could very much relate. Their Labrador retriever seemed to be a distant relative of our spirited chocolate lab who we have nicknamed Double D for “dumb dog.” And actually, the book made our dumb dog look like a saint. Everyone except the Mr. read the book, or in Dash’s case, a cleaned up version made for kids, and so when we saw that there was going to be a movie, we decided that it was a must see for our vacation.
My parents were in town and we were going to make a trip of it (except for Jack Jack, who got to go play with a friend, instead). As we sat around the lunch table before the movie, I said, “Now, just so we are clear, we all know that the dog dies at the end of the movie, right?” I thought that the fact that we had all read the book would be preparation enough.
But I was unprepared for a few things. I was first of all unprepared for the amount of sex and sexual references that were contained in a PG movie about a dog. I knew there was discussions of sex in the book, but assumed, wrongly, that in a PG movie, that these would be toned down or eliminated. A tip: check the parental advisories even of PG movies.
I was also unprepared for how a movie can pull emotions out of you, almost unwillingly. And I was unprepared for how hard it was for Dash to deal with the death of the dog in the movie when he had seemingly dealt okay with it in the book. After the movie, Dash did not say a word. He looked like he was holding back tears. I asked him if he was okay and he could barely nod. It took him a good twenty minutes before he really started talking as we discussed what parts of the book we wished had been in the movie. And that night, he was all about our own Dumb Dog.
The movie may have been the best thing ever to happen in our dog’s six years. She got so much attention in the last few days. She was petted and played with and Dash made the request that he wanted DD to sleep in his room. I told him she needed a bath first and she needed to be dry in time and his room needed to be cleaned up. So last night I showered the dog and let her dry off. Dash was concerned that she wouldn’t be dry in time for bed and offered to blow dry her. We put a blanket on the floor next to Dash’s bed and Dash was willing to go to bed 20 minutes before his bedtime, just to have the dog in his room with him. When I went in to check on them before I went to bed, both the Dog and Dash, looked like they were both having happy dreams.
I don’t know how long this will last for our dog and Dash. But I do know that I should never again underestimate that powerful tie between a boy and his dog.
