Life with Dogs, and One Child- Part 4: dé·tente

Eventually  we all settled into detente.

Finding a photo from these years with both Pumpkin and Brennan in it is a challenge. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t images.

I painted several that illustrated the tensions between toddler and dog.

And just as Pumpkin finally began to adjust to one child around the house, I became pregnant with another.

This new person was strong and liked to do his tumbling act whenever I needed a steady hand.

By the summer of 1990, we were in the  last weeks and Pumpkin and I were feeling heavy and tired.

Meanwhile, over in Bookland, I was illustrating Isabel Wilner’s A Garden Alphabet. Pumpkin is the gardener and her best buddy is a frog.

That rude frog laughed right along with Brennan when I broke the rope hammock in my 9th month.

Knowing what was coming, I made the hard decision to leave Pumpkin at “Camp Stoneledge,” aka my mom’s house, in Vermont. She was 13 now, and touchier around Brennan than ever.

But with Border Collies Ben (left) and Flora (right) as housemates she thrived and lived another 2 years.