My mommy needs me

I know, because Cesar Millan says so. Mommy knows it, because Cesar says so. She just doesn't know exactly how she needs me. Yet.

Cesar is a really smart man. He knows everything about puppies, even naughty puppies. Even scared puppies. Even crazy-daisy puppies (like me). He helps people like my mommy be better puppy parents and puppies be better puppies. Sometimes, it is easier than other times.

Cesar says "You don't get the dog you want. You get the dog you need." "Hmmm," my mommy says. "I need Dewey. I need Dewey???"

Mommy knows this is true. She knows because she knows she needed my great-aunt Emma. It took her a long time to figure that out. Aunt Emma was not an easy puppy, or a nice puppy. She was kind of mean to Baby Royko when she first came to live at our house. She was big and bossy. She was loud. She gave Mommy and Baby Royko boo boos that had to have doctors' help to fix. She made the puppy doctor think -for just a minute - that maybe Daddy hurt Baby Royko. (He would not. He is the best daddy ever, and he loved his girls more than anything. But then the doctor met Aunt Emma. Then he understood.)

But guess what: Mommy (and Daddy) said, "She is worth the trouble. She is our girl. We must help her be a better girl." In the end, Aunt Emma was not just a better girl. She was the best girl ever.

Mommy says it took a long time, but she finally knew why God gave her Emma: to teach her about active love. Mommy always loved Emma, even when Emma made it hard. In the end, love won. Aunt Emma changed. So did Mommy.

Mommy needs me. I need Mommy. We both will change. We do not know how we will change, but we will. We will be better because this is true. We know. Cesar said so.