We introduced a backup Puppy to Jonah (identical to his normal Puppy except newer and, well, plumper) nearly a year ago - - in the hopes that it would help him accept a surrogate in the event the original met an untimely demise.

Like many of our sparks of parental brilliance, this tactic backfired.

Other Puppy was utterly rejected by Jonah and now it’s Benjamin’s second security object. Other Puppy is not quite like Shirt, though. The world still revolves on its axis if Other Puppy goes missing for a spell. Whereas we’ve had to cut Shirt into smaller bits and squirrel them about the house to ward off despair should the current one be lost (or - more likely – need a bath).

But Other Puppy is still much beloved. Benjamin asked me to diaper and swaddle his Puppy, then I overheard him saying: “I’m going to carry you, Puppy, because you don’t have any foots.”