A few weeks ago we took Beso, our cocker spaniel, to a place to be boarded while we were on the Cape. The drop-off was not dissimilar to the scene in Hope Floats when the little girl stands sobbing in the street as her dad drives away. The week that we were away I struggled with the echo of Briar murmuring, “Mom, it’s like we are leaving him to be adopted. Does he know we’ll be back?” I shushed her in the moment, but as the days passed I found myself whispering, “I hope so, baby. I hope he knows.” When we went to pick him up we looked cautiously for the pig who had startled us our first time. Beso, it turns out,…