Gaits of Heaven

some pages about foiling squirrels. Steve was already using one kind of baffle, but the pages included a couple of potentially useful suggestions for new efforts. One was to use two different baffles, one above the other, on a pole. Another was to use a PVC pole or to put an ordinary pole in a length of PVC pipe.
    Returning to the kitchen and looking out the window, I saw that one of the feeders had been emptied of seed and that the other was occupied by guess what—and not an ivory-billed woodpecker. This time, I simultaneously tapped the glass and hollered, thus managing to drown out the sound of Caprice letting herself and her father in through the kitchen door. I’d given Caprice a key and wanted her to use it, but I was embarrassed to be caught threatening a squirrel with destruction by malamute. The threat was idle, but I felt like a dope, especially because Monty Brainard was so irritatingly suave and urbane.
    “No apologies necessary,” he said. “I can’t stay. I just wanted to thank you again.”
    He was dressed in a conservative summer suit, this one dark navy—how many did he own?—and his tan hadn’t faded at all. Rowdy and Kimi wouldn’t, of course, induce pallor, but if they brushed against Monty, their hair would be all over that navy suit, and I’d feel obliged to remove it. Or try. The easiest way would be to don a pair of ordinary rubber gloves and, using moderate pressure, run my hands repeatedly downward on the fabric while saying... I could just hear myself: Now, Monty, it may seem as if I’m using dog hair as an excuse to give you an intimate massage, but this method really is very effective. Plus, the rubber gloves would make him think I was some kind of pervert.
    Fortunately, instead of greeting Monty in their usual hair-depositing fashion, the dogs behaved oddly. They sashayed up to Caprice and gave her the big-brown-eyes treatment, but what they did with Monty was... nothing. Specifically, Kimi did not drop to the floor, roil over, tuck in her paws, fix her gaze on her victim, and await a tummy rub. What’s more, she remained silent. Rowdy, for his part, did not stack himself as if he were showing off for a judge. Like Kimi, he failed to present his underbelly, and he issued not a single woo. Although one of his fleece toys was right there, he did not offer it to Monty, and he did not vanish and reappear with other fleece tokens of welcome. I also want to note that neither dog showed any sign of perceiving Monty as a threat. Those signs are subtle, but I wouldn’t have missed them. Kimi didn’t station herself at my side and move her eyes back and forth between Monty and me. Rowdy didn’t position himself between Monty and me as if to create a canine barricade. In brief, the dogs did nothing. For malamutes, especially these two, to ignore a visitor was peculiar and unsettling. Still, for once, a dark suit escaped unfurred.
    Monty Brainard, seeing nothing, noticed nothing.
    “You don’t need to thank us,” I said.
    “I wish I could stay to help out,” Monty said.
    “He’s due back in New York,” Caprice explained. “I need to go to Ted’s to get some stuff. There’s not a lot there that’s actually mine, but I’ll feel better if I can get it out.”
    “The cellar here is dry. There’s plenty of room.” I couldn’t recall having invited Caprice to move in with us for the summer, but Leah might have issued the invitation for an extended stay. Steve would have consulted me first, but, always with good intentions, Leah could be high-handed. “If you need help, I’ll go with you, or Leah will. She finishes early today. She’ll be home soon.”
    “Caprice would be better off not going there alone,” Monty said. “Thank you.” Then, after kissing Caprice goodbye, he left.
    Monty Brainard knew that his daughter shouldn’t go to Ted’s alone. And what was his response? To leave for New York. If Rowdy had decided that I was threatened, he’d have used his massive body to place a barrier between me and the source of danger. If I’d had to enter a place I feared, Kimi would have stayed right by my side. Rowdy and Kimi were, in fact, better dogs than Monty Brainard was a father. Indeed, when the occasion demanded it, they were excellent parents.
     

CHAPTER 22
     
    If you’re stuck with inadequate parents, the situation is more hopeful than it might seem. There’s always psychotherapy, but it has its limits, including what are called “boundaries,” which