Dr. Doolittle*

*Please note that this is most definitely not a reference to the Eddie Murphy rendition; may that remake be obliterated from the hearts and minds of all free-thinking peoples.

Luke has gotten pretty good at walking out the front door, down all the steps, along the sidewalk, and then up the driveway to the car, all by himself, and that truly makes my heart (and my back) glad. But the other day as we were getting ready to load up for another outing, I noticed that he had stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and seemed to be talking to someone up the street. I couldn't see anyone over the bushes, but when he continued to converse with this mysterious figure, I decided I'd better check things out. As I walked down the driveway, some of his words became clearer: "'Lo, Cat!" Sure enough, our local "house-hopping" cat was nosing around in our neighbor's bushes, and Luke was deep in conversation with her.

Luke greets our Window Gecko.
(Yes, he wants to wear those boots everywhere.
Typically, sans pants. I know; he's going to kill me for this
someday... But it's so worth it, isn't it?)

I'm not sure that Luke has completely grasped the fact that animals won't respond in kind to human addresses. Why should he? Every book we read has a talking animal of some sort, and we are always asking him to tell us "what the elephant says"... I'm afraid he may be in for a rude awakening one of these days.

Unless, of course, he really can talk to the animals, chat with the cheetahs, parlay with the pachyderms...

But until that minor issue is settled, I take no little amusement out of seeing him run from one end of the backyard to the other, just to repeat, "HELLO, SKURLE!" in eager anticipation of a friendly response from his animal pals...