Girl's Best Friend (aka Playdate at Zane's House!)

For about a year now, Zienna has been begging on a near-daily basis to attend school. She's a smart cookie, having mastered colors and shapes earlier than either Zach or Zoë, and she loves doing “homework.” She also sees the playground equipment at Zoë’s school—the “park,” as she calls it—and presumably thinks it comprises the bulk of the students’ curriculum. Throw in that she’s an absolute social butterfly, begging to tag along every time the older Z Kids head out to play with friends, and yeah, this girl is ready for more stimulation than I can offer her. And yet, preschool won't happen for another six months at least.

Good thing Zane's around.

Given that Zienna and Zane joined our family just four months apart, I suppose it was inevitable they'd be pals. They’ve spent countless hours at home together, and from the minute Zienna could crawl—around, over, and often on—Zane, they’ve been best buds. With Zienna starving for companionship and play, I’ve readily come to see Zane as “our" dog, especially since Zach, who begged to adopt him, hardly ever has a thing to do with the poor guy. No, Zienna can't feed Zane or clean up his poop, but she can pet, wrestle and throw a ball for him to fetch, and he seems to enjoy their time together.

But this week, things took a new—and rather odd—turn.

In the past, Zienna has occasionally crawled into Zane's crate, where she’s typically pretended to lock herself inside and then call for me to let her out—Attention-Getting 101. It was a harmless little game, even if I worried a bit about the fecal bacteria and whatnot that no doubt inhabits the floor of the structure. But then, Zienna spends half her life on the floor anyway, and I'll readily admit that ours is far from spotless.

It had been some time since Zienna had been in the crate until yesterday morning when, thoroughly engrossed in tending to my ailing PC, I semi-consciously heard its door slam. And then it got very quiet. And when the quiet continued, the little "better see what she's up to" alarm went off in my head. When I went to investigate, I heard giggling from inside the crate, where Zienna and Zane were sitting side by side, packed rather tightly, as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

I tried to open the door, but Zienna immediately protested.

"We playing, Daddy," she explained. "Me and Zane like it in here."

Since they looked so contented, I resumed my work and again forgot about them until that alarm went off again and I found they were still "playing"—even though nearly an hour had gone by! By then, Zane was whimpering for escape, tired of the game. I convinced Zienna that Zane needed to go potty, so she let him out. But she didn’t budge for some time. And even after emerging, she returned repeatedly throughout the day, sometimes with Zane, sometimes without. It got to where I hardly even noticed.

This morning, bright and early, I heard the crate door slam shut once again. And there Zienna was, sitting happy as a clam next to Zane, who by this point was flashing me a look of "Yeah, it's sweet and all, but please, HELP ME!" But it was no use. Zienna insisted Zane wanted to be in the crate, and that was that. It's not like she was beating him, so I left him there to suffer for Zienna's happiness.

Zienna's a real character, and I suspect this will pass like the other myriad offbeat behaviors she's exhibited as she's found ways to amuse herself. And if not? Well heck, I've had my eye on her room as an office for some time now. And part of me wonders if she’d even care.