and calls him a butthead. My mom sighs at the lack
of kindness: brothers angry, father stubbornly

morose. Lonely neighbor Winnie and her war-
dead brother, her parents dividing their grief

in divorce. My mom only wanted
zany family trouble—sulky teen turns sheepdog,

parentless boy befriends chimp.
Though even those old Disney plots could unsettle

my sister. My mom reassured her with statements
of fact: You’ll never be an orphan. We’ll never own a dog.