The Literary Pet of the Month is Luna

My 8-year-old son recently had to write a nonfiction narrative for his third grade “writer’s workshop.” He chose to write about the time we got a new dog, and how she came to be named Luna. It’s tempting to just reprint that in full here, because while it wasn’t entirely accurate, it was incredibly sweet and captured my sentiments exactly: She was “the most beautiful dog ever” and “I was excited as a kid on Christmas Eve.” In reality, Luna—or Sparkle, which was the name given to her by the local dog rescue group after they picked her up in Oklahoma—was in pretty rough shape. Pink, itchy skin, no fur on her back haunches, and a few pounds underweight, 6-month-old Sparkle was far from the luminous and magical creature that I can now, with complete and total objectivity, say she is today.

We’re big Harry Potter fans in our house, and the name Luna, after the character Luna Lovegood, quickly emerged as a frontrunner in the renaming process, not only for her seemingly wise-beyond-her-years and calm, good natured personality, but also because “luna” means moon, and there’s something very otherworldly and bewitching about those clear blue eyes of hers. And no one wants to be an Umbridge, am I right?

I think we can all agree that she’s got style for days, but her literary chops leave a little to be desired. Her main interest when it comes to books is to chew on the corners of them (which she has only done twice, thankfully, to a memoir and a story collection), and to sit on them (which she does any time I have books spread out on the floor). I take both of these as signs of love.

Where Luna really excels is in her role of my office assistant. I work remotely as Catapult’s director of publicity, and Luna can usually be found snoozing on the floor near my office chair. Though her mail sorting and press release folding skills are garbage, she’s an excellent morale booster and doubles as a therapy pet on the more stressful days. And obviously she’s a huge fan of all things Catapult.

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