“Our humans are home! Our humans are home! I can hear them in the driveway. C’mon Mama! Let’s see what they brought!”

I turn around in circles and fall a couple times because my feet are too big, but Mama just sits there. She perked up her ears and sniffed the air, but then she put her head down on her crossed front paws. Then, the door opens. Mama lifts up her head sniffs the air and walks over to our humans. I follow her. Trying to act like her too.

Our humans are carrying a strange contraption. It looks like a box with a handle. I’ve seen boxes before. There are always lots of boxes. So much fun to play in. Especially when they have tissue or other stuff around whatever the humans take out of the boxes. Oh how I love boxes.

But this contraption is more than a box. I can tell that there is something special in it. Our humans are taking special care with it. Not like the boxes that get dropped and skidded on the floor sometimes. No. They’re being careful. Like something is breakable is inside.

Our humans set the contraption down on the floor. Our man leans down and puts his arm around Mama. He says something to her. She seems to understand because she wags her tail. She was sitting next to our man, but she gets up and looks into the contraption after our man talks to her. She sniffs and wags her tail some more. She looks back at our man and then up to our woman. They both smile at her. I wonder what is in the contraption.

Mama nudges me over to the contraption. I put my front paws up to the lowest part of it and look in. Something is moving and making little sounds, but all I see is blankets. Softer than the ones I sleep on, and they have almost no smell. That is when I get a whiff.

The whiff is of something new. No. Not quite. Somebody new. It is a new human! I look at Mama. “We have a new human!”

Mama just nods at me.

I look back in the contraption. Mama tells me later that it is a car seat. I don’t get a car seat when I go for a ride. But that’s okay. I turn and look again at our new human. I smell her. She smells a little like our woman and a little like our man. But she smells like herself too.

Our humans pick up the car seat and go to their own room. I want to follow, but Mama nods her head. She sits and then lays back down again where she was before. She puts her head on her folded front paws after a big yawn.

“Mama! Why can’t I go see the new little human? Why can’t I go with our man and our woman?”

“Our woman needs sleep. And her daughter needs sleep and attention. And our man needs to take care of them both. You know what that means, right? Take care of?”

I straighten up and get as big as I can. I bare my tiny teeth. “Nobody will mess with our humans as long as we’re around. Right, Mama?”

Mama laughs. But then she gets serious. “Of course, you are right. Nobody will mess with our humans. Especially, the little one. The baby.”

“Right. Especially, the baby.”

I sit in front of Mama. “But what will I do with the baby? Will she scratch my ears like our man? Will she feed me like our woman?”

Mama laughs. “No, dear. She’ll just lay there for a long time. And you’ll get bigger much faster than she will. But it will be a long time before she is scratching your ears or throwing your fetch toy. But it will be okay. Just be there with her and love her. That’s all you need to do until she is ready to do the other things.”

I slumped my head down and nuzzled Mama. “Aaaah.”

***

I loved our new baby. Even though she just lay there all the time. When she cried, I would cry with her, and our woman would come and feed her. When she laughed, I would jump up and down. Mama would smile at me and wag her tail. I knew I was doing my job. Just being there for our new baby. I wanted her to scratch my ears and throw my fetch toy, but I knew I was just supposed to be there. And one day when she pulled my ears or threw something at me, I would be okay. Because she was my baby and I would do anything for her.