Man's Best Friend, Sequel

Retirement Odyssey . . . R+66

Man's Best Friend, continued from THU 5/4

• PART 1 . . . On WED 5/3, after the little girls & I got home [I picked them up after school, as usual.], Oreo [their dog], was masticating contentedly on a bone-chew toy while laying on the living room/dining room rug. That inspired me to give Sammy [my dog] a bone-chew toy, since there was an open package on the kitchen counter. Things went smoothly until Oreo looked up & noticed Sammy's "bone." Oreo went berserk, attacked Sammy & drove him off the "bone," absconding with it. Poor Sammy, remembering that he was a guest, retired meekly to the corner by the front door. Oreo took the "bone" which he had nefariously purloined, went back to the rug, & dropped it next to the "bone" which he had been contentedly chewing mere moments before. Then he started trading glances from one "bone" to the other. You could almost hear him thinking, "Uh, where did I get two bones? Seriously, I was sitting here chewing on one bone, & now I have TWO bones. What the heck is with that?!"
• PART 2 . . . At the supper table I mentioned that the Worley dog had tried to mug my dog. I won't name names, but somebody's excuse was, "You never treat our dog nice!" I can neither confirm nor deny that my secondary English major kicked in, & the following conversation ensued.  ME: Nicely. I never treat your dog nicely. OTHER ADULT AT THE TABLE. That's what I said. ME: No, you said, "Nice." You said, 'You never treat our dog "Nice." OAATT: "So?" [Said in a very disrespectful tone of voice] ME:  So you're using "nice" as a modifier of "treat" which is a verb. "Nice" can't modify a verb, since it is an adjective. Adjectives can't modify verbs. Therefore, you should have said, "You never treat our dog "nicely." That would turn "nice," an adjective, into "nicely," an adverb, & your sentence would make sense. [It was obvious that my words had struck a chord.] The girls kept eating their spaghetti while staring at their Papa in awe-awe.