All creatures great and small

We don't have any pets at home, so James's exposure to animals has until recently been limited to the squirrels and other animals that cross our path while we're playing outside. (He was carefully kept from contact with the great Spring 2008 Mouse Invasion.)

All this changed over the past couple of weeks. First, James met Idgie, my aunt and uncle's cat. I did not personally get to see this (Gran and Buzzy were very sweetly keeping James while Dave and I went out for dinner), but James was much taken with Idgie and chased her all up and down their apartment in a fit of glee.

Next, James met the large, friendly dog of a friend of ours during a Memorial Day cookout. This time, he was a little apprehensive about this big thing that was alive...but not human. He studied it from a safe distance for a while, then rushed up and growled at it. The dog took this all in stride. By the end of the afternoon, James had developed the habit of looking around for the dog, walking over to it, growling, and toddling off.

His current view is that the correct thing to do when you meet an animal socially is to growl politely at it in greeting. He's tried this on several of the neighbors' dogs. I'd be a little worried about this, but it's been universally well-received thus far.