"Do you want to go?" My question is to the room. One set of ears hears in a dead sleep.

Springing up. Feet in perfect ballet turnout. Spinning in circles. Pirouettes of ecstasy.

"Why does he do that?" She's asked the question before. Sort of rhetorically. Aware that the pup enjoys going out.

She's right to wonder, though. "Why does he do his dance of joy, whirling around as if in ballet slippers?"

"The pup hears something else with his sharp ears."

"What's that, hon?"

"For him, the whole world is a stage and he's warming up for his cue."