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Good Dog, Carl

Jupiter has a book called "Good Dog, Carl" by Alexandra Day. It is a classic book that many kids enjoy, and Jupiter is no different here. Apparently Carl has become quite popular too. He has a website and a whole series of books.

This book has very few words. It has a sentence on the first page and another on the last page, but in between there are some pretty great illustrations. The pictures tell the story of a baby and a dog having fun at the house while mom goes to the store. They get into all sorts of shenanigans and turn the house into a big mess. The baby even goes for a swim in the fish aquarium. After all the fun is over, Carl bathes baby and cleans up the house.

When mom comes home, assuming that Carl sat next to the crib watching the baby all day, she says, "Good dog, Carl."

When I first went through this book with Jupiter, I thought that this was a very irresponsible mother. However, upon further reflection, I realized that maybe I am projecting the irresponsibility of my own dogs onto Carl. I could never leave Bowser to watch a baby. He would probably engage in all the same fun as Carl did, but he would not be responsible enough to clean up the mess, let alone give the baby a bath. So even though Carl's owner would surely get a visit from child protective services had they caught wind of her leaving a baby alone with a dog while going to the store, I feel comfortable with Carl as a baby sitter in this case. Child protective services seems to concentrate a little bit too much on the protective perception and not enough on the individual child sometimes anyhow.
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