Last spring, I got a puppy, whom I named Ziva. At the beginning, like any baby, she was tiny and slept most of the time.  I took her to a couple of seminars and she dozed at my feet. During the last seminar of the year, she hit the doggie version of the terrible twos. Ziva pulled my shoes off each of my feet in turn, took them to the middle of the space created by four sqared off tables, and proceeded to shake them to kill them, and after they were well and truly dead, to chew on them with great enthusasiasm. After they were sufficiently masticated, she strolled around to inspect various students' backbacks, sniffing for food and chewy things--which she defines broadly. 

Her seminar days were clearly behind her.

This wasn't a problem in the summer--but school is beginning again. So I decided on doggie daycare rather than leaving her home alone all day. I suspect Pope Francis would think this is crazy--he's cautioned people against treating pets like children.  But it's Amy Schumer's sendup of doggie daycare that made me wince the most.

 

 

Cathleen Kaveny is the Darald and Juliet Libby Professor in the Theology Department and Law School at Boston College.

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