Phoebe Has a Crush on Josephine

Josephine is slender and athletic, with green eyes and freckles, big teeth and rust-colored hair. "Ginger" she would call it. Josephine grew up near London and has a pleasant British accent--not posh, but crisp and foreign enough for Phoebe to take notice. (Josephine says "boot" for "trunk" and "mo-bile" for "cell phone," and listening to her makes Phoebe think of Diana Rigg as Emma Peale.)

Phoebe has a crush on Josephine, but Josephine doesn't seem to notice. She spends most of her time at the Dog Park playing catch with Coco, her big chocolate Lab. Coco is very insistent. (She'll fling the ball, slobber and all, right into your lap if you try to ignore her.) Plus, she has a nasty habit of eating fresh poo, so Josephine has to stay on alert. (Dried piles of poop don't tempt her, but the minute one of the dogs starts to hunch over--even one at the very far end of the park--Josephine has to grab Coco's collar and hold on tight until the other dog's owner has cleaned up, or Coco will take off and wolf it right down before anyone can even get to it.) 

Josephine is mortified by Coco's poo-eating behavior, which mitigates somewhat the disgust most of the other dog owners feel. "It's a phase," some of them say. Or, "Maybe you should feed her more meat."

Phoebe tries to be firm, but reassuring. "You'll just have to teach her not to do it," she says, but she's not so sure. God, as far as she knows, has never eaten dog poop. But he does like to root through the garbage and every so often he'll find something foul on the ground and then he'll throw himself down in ecstatic delight and roll in it until he's covered with the stuff.