The Paris Review - Fall 2016

In the car on the way to the groomer’s, Simha was crazy. The black part
of her lips pulled strangely, and she jumped from the back seat to the front.
“Simha, no,” Emily said. She stopped at an intersection. When the light
turned green, she pulled forward halfway and put her left turn signal on.
Cars came toward her from the other lane. “Simha, settle down. Do you
want some music?”
Emily turned on the radio and found a pop song that she thought her
dog would like. A car waiting behind her honked, and she pulled forward
and braked to avoid colliding head-on with another car.
Normally David would have taken Simha to the groomer’s, but a month
before, Emily had had a miscarriage, and she and her husband still hadn’t
talked about it. What was there to say? He was away at his brother’s wedding
in Mexico—the miscarriage gave her a good excuse not to go—and Simha
really needed a bath and a haircut. Simha was her first dog since she was
a child, and sometimes Emily didn’t believe she was a dog. Her eyes looked
too intelligent. She seemed like a smooth customer who had gone undercover.
Sometimes when Emily forced Simha to snuggle, she felt attracted
to her dog, which made no sense because Emily was not attracted to dogs,
though her first sexual experiences were with a dog. But that had been a
male dog, and a lot of children have those kinds of experiences. Sometimes
when Emily played with Simha in the park, she let her roughhouse, and she
got so full of fear and excitement over jumping with her, it was like Emily
was a dog, too.
At the Brookside Barkery and Bath, Emily made small talk with the
cashier. On impulse, she bought a relaxing peanut-butter valerian treat,
which she fed to Simha before the groomer led her away.
A FEW HOURS LATER, the groomer called her. “Is this Simha’s mommy?”
“Yes, I’m her . . . owner.”
“She’s ready for you to come and pick her up.”
“Okay, great.”
The groomer was quiet. “Simha had some difficulties this time.”
“Oh.”
“She actually enjoyed getting her teeth brushed, which was a first for
me. I caught some mats forming under her collar, so you might want to pay
extra attention there when you’re brushing her. I cut her front nails, but her
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