Trouper

The producers of HamannEggs were concerned our plot was getting a little stale. The kids are getting older, there are less poop and pee stories to tell, and we aren’t planning on moving to Denver again. So they decided to pull a “Cousin Oliver” and add a few, fun character.

Namely, Trouper the dog!

Trouper the dog is a little white animal of indeterminate breed who comes to us by way of my brother Luke. Trouper is friendly, funny and only growls when you try to remove him from Luca’s bed.

He’s also a world class people food thief. He snatched a sandwich off Luca’s plate using a series of wires and lasers and a hang glider.

Luca declared Trouper to be officially “his” dog. This does not mean he feeds or cleans up after Trouper. Luca’s ownership duties include letting the dog on his bed and occasionally joining me for evening walks around the block.

Don’t get me wrong, my walks with Luca have been the highlight of my year. Even though Trouper weighs about 7 pounds, he still manages to drag Luca over every yard in the neighborhood. This is because Luca loves a good sight gag.

The real reason I love the walks is Luca forgets the rule about never telling your dad anything about your life and opens up about his fears, his desires and his deep feelings. Plus we get to look into our neighbor’s windows and see what shows they watch.

Now you may be asking yourself, “How is Grover the dog taking this?” Not well.

Grover does not like to compete for attention. Or food. And he’s taken to sulking like a 14 year old who had his Snapchat privileges taken away. I think. I’ve tried to get back into his good graces by giving him lots of treats and we give him 100% reign of our bed. But he mostly just sighs.

I’m hoping the warm weather will brighten his spirits since he can now lie around and sigh outside as well.

If all else fails we’ll write in a musical episode to boost ratings.