Denise asks me as I look out her kitchen window to the backyard. Turning to face my sister, I see her holding out a cup of coffee toward me. I accept it gratefully with a smile. “Thought I’d take Sam over to the Audobon Zoo… spend the day there.” “He’ll love it,” she says, leaning her hip against the counter and sipping at her own coffee. “I thought we’d go out for dinner tonight. I should be home around six.” “Sounds like a plan,” I say with a smile, turning my head back toward the window to watch Sam running around the backyard with Denise’s golden retriever, Scout. Even though the window is closed, I can hear his excited, five-year-old giggle as Scout whines at him to throw the ball in his hand. Denise comes up to stand beside me, gazing out the window. “That boy needs a dog.” “Easy for you to say… living here in the ‘burbs of New Orleans,” I tell her with a wry grin. “They don’t work so well in an apartment in Brooklyn.” “Maybe a little dog,”
