From WBEZ Chicago, it's this American Life.
I'm Bim Adewunmi in for Hourglass.
My younger cousin Camille is not really a dog person, but there is one dog she adored.
Her name was Foxy because she looked exactly like a fox, except she was black.
She was the neighbor's dog.
But she and Camille seemed to have a real kinship, maybe because they both weren't very far from the ground.
Camille was around 4 or 5 years old back then.
She had a little lisp, so Foxy came out as Foshy.
I thought it was one of the cutest things I'd ever heard.
The way Camille remembers Foxy, it's almost like a movie.
Her memories feel like endless summer, hazy and perfect, like a scene shot on crackly film.
I just remembered, like, the feeling of being excited to go and see Foxy.
I have an image in my head of, like, coming to the house and I could see Foxy was, like, outside.
I can see Foxy through the door that leads to the garden.
There's a story about Camille and Foxy that I think about fairly often.
I've talked about it with my sister for years, but never with Camille.
And it's this once when they were playing, Foxy nipped at Camille.
Nothing serious, just an excited kid playing with an excited dog.
One minute they were playing half under the coffee table in the middle of the room, and the next, they weren't.
There was no need to go to the hospital or anything, but it was enough to startle Camille and to make her cry.