Bruce Cameron

Editor’s Note: The following column was originally published in 2009.

I went over to my daughter’s place for a visit, so she left town.

I guess that’s not precisely what happened: I was asked to “house sit,” as if her home needed supervision to keep it from jumping on the furniture and staying up past its bedtime. It sounds pretty benign, until you consider that inside the house are two cats and two dogs — one of which is a puppy named Baron.

To be more precise, Baron is a 9-month-old Great Dane, so when I say “puppy,” I mean “mastodon.” This is an animal that with a little training could easi...