I don’t know what came over me? I’ve never done that before. Yes, I admit I’m a stress eater. But I wasn’t feeling particularly stressed. Besides, it has been ages since I’ve gnawed on anything. Sure I enjoyed chewing a bone or two back in my youth, and have destroyed my fair share of stuffed animals. But I’ve never ate a book until now!

The evening started normal enough. Asa and I were settling in to our bedroom for a good night’s sleep. When all of a sudden I got this urge that I couldn’t resist that book on the shelf. And not just any book, one published in 1868 that belonged to Mom’s Great Nana’s family.

Why did I chew the spine of that history book as opposed to the many others on that bookcase? There were massed produced paperbacks, that could easily be replaced, including the now ironically titled, I Could Chew on This: And Other Poems by Dogs. I’m just glad I didn’t choose the next one over on the shelf, because that is the book Dad’s Grandfather gave Mom. She still remembers how proud he was to give her his treasured old book from 1897. Thankfully, I did choose the least sentimental of the books Mom received from Great Nana’s family collection. Mom would have been sad if I sunk my teeth into any of romances from the 1940s, that she imagined Great Nana and her sisters read with great delight.

Speaking of Mom, she caught me. Her supersonic ears heard the thump and the strange gnawing noise, and instantly she was there to see what we were up to. It all happened so fast. I couldn’t even blame Asa, who was watching me from the bed in horror. In this situation Mom had every right to act as judge and jury and throw the book at me! But surprisingly she didn’t. I think she was as shocked as I was for my sudden taste in literature.