Dear Tyler,
We have been through a lot together these past almost nine years. You have kept me warm at night when Jake works the night shift. You made Gavin laugh the first night we brought him home. You clean the floor under Gavin's chair. You have somehow avoided getting run over every time you escape from the house and run off like a greyhound posessed. You have calmed down a lot with age, but your barking at every person that walks by the house and every out of place noise remains. It didn't bother me too much before Gavin, but now my sleep is more precious, and so is his. Since Gavin joined our family your barking has driven me
nuts.
But today I would like to thank you for your barking. Thank you for standing outside of Gavin's room during naptime and barking. Because when I walked over to pick you up and try to keep you from waking up Gavin I heard some activity in his room. I opened the door just as Gavin was dumping a box of 64 crayons onto his bed. He had gotten into his closet, which I thought had been locked, and gotten the crayons, which should have been on a high shelf, and opened them up. So Tyler, I think the catastrophic mess you prevented today makes up for all your nuisance barking in the past. So thank you Tyler, today you earned your keep.
