Dog + Stick = Happiness

At some point in this blog, I reported that we were assiduously keeping Lacey from chewing sticks in our backyard, per vet instructions. Well, we abandoned that some time ago and I wanted to set the record straight. We were at a new friend's house, where the dog was blissed out, working his jaws around a big ol' stick. Justin and I looked at each other with the same thing going through our minds--something like, okay, as long as there have been dogs, and there have been sticks, there have been dogs chewing sticks. Who are we to intervene? And life suddenly became so much easier when we let her do what dogs do in the backyard. I'm sure, I'm positive, that there have been sad cases of dogs with splinters in their throats that had to be surgically removed, just as the vet warned. But you can't live in fear, you know? I also let me kids climb trees and balance precariously on the back fence. Measured recklessness, I shall call it.