A certain determined young boy in my family likes to make charts of Ivy's and Revel's preferences, the main point of which is to prove that Ivy loves him best.
"See, I'm up here," he begins. . .and then he digs his heels in and prepares to defend his claim at all costs. The other two males in the family cannot help but refute him. I keep right on cooking, Ivy at my feet (ahem); this is not the hill I'm going to die on.
"Ivy definitely loves Bear best," the other boy says.
"No, she loves me best," says Mr. Determination, "then Bear next. Bear, doesn't Ivy love me best?"
I roll out my sweet, neutral, possibly-maddening mama answer: "She loves us all dearly."
Ivy is with me all the time, looks to me for instruction, and keeps very close tabs on me. She sleeps next to me, is sad when I go and ecstatic when I return. Her ideal situation is for the four of us to be in the same general area so she can keep tabs on all of us. But if we split off in different directions, she chooses to go with me. Is that love? It's priceless, whatever name it goes by. That said, she gets different things from each of us and she knows it. The chart-making boy is the most generous belly-rubber, and Ivy will often flop down and offer her belly at the sight of him. Both boys do things I will never do, like get down on Ivy's dog bed with her and roll around, or play hide-and-seek with yucky hiding places such as under the dog bed, the mere thought of which makes me sneeze. They're much sweatier and tastier than I am. They don't care if the dogs are filthy or if clouds of fur are floating off of them. They bring a playfulness to both dogs that a forty-four year old woman cannot match. They will also stretch out on the floor and let Revel do his "power lick" (intense and prolonged licking of the same spot, probably sweaty spot, on your body), which personally makes me itchy. Both dogs love us all and regret the absence of any one of us.
Love doesn't fit into a chart anyway, my dear; it's too big and beautiful and 3-D. We're all loved passionately; life is practically power-licking us! Let's enjoy it together, okay?
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