dogs on the bus?

here’s a little glimpse into my daughter’s psyche:

of course, this has to do with dogs… there has been discussion lately about the prospect of dogs riding the bus. we recently read all of the henry huggins books by beverly cleary. (aside, if you or your children are between the ages of 5 and 100 and you have never read these books, go get them now! fabulous, wholesome, whole family entertainment. they precede the ramona books, which more people might be familiar with and are just delightful. I read them all to shane a few years ago and have just finished them with layla. we are now onto the second ramona book and loving it as much as I did when I read them as a kid. go read them. now.) at any rate, at the beginning of the first henry huggins book, when henry first gets ribsy, he tries to bring him home on the bus, which he’s told he cannot do, unless the dog is tied in a box. so in layla’s mind, dogs are not allowed on busses. then, the other day, we drove past a bus stop near our house, and there was boy there, that we see frequently walking through the neighborhood, with his dog. they were waiting at the bus stop, which set up this whole new dilemma for layla, because, according to the authority of juvenile literature, dogs are not allowed on busses! I told her that the our local transit department does allow dogs on busses, at the discretion of the driver. (bet you didn’t know that!) but still, her general assumption is that dogs are not allowed on busses.

just now, I put on 101 dalmatians for her to watch while micah naps (to sleep off his stomach bug – blech), and she noticed that, on the menu screen, there is a scene where pongo gets on a bus! a red “double ducker” bus, no less! (that’s what micah calls them.) she wanted to know why that was okay. my first answer was something along the lines of “well maybe that’s okay there.” and my second defaulted to “it’s a movie and they can do whatever they want.” apparently, neither of these answers were sufficient for layla, because she then presented the obvious answer that my highly illogical, adult brain was unable to come up with…

“well, he is a dad, you know. and dads go to work. and, you know, some dads go to work on the bus. so that’s why he had to ride the bus.”

of course! he’s got to support all those puppies somehow! LOL!

oh, to be 6!