Two weeks after 10-year old Sarah’s parents told her she couldn’t have a dog Sarah bought a small little collar. It was pink with rhinestones. The rhinestones captured her heart like only rhinestones in the eyes of a tween can. She clipped the price tag off and threw away the receipt.

“You know you can’t return it if you do that,” I said.

“I’m not going to return it,” she said smugly.

A week later she picked out a name.

“I know what you’re up to Sarah,” her mother told her. “And it’s not going to work. You’re not getting a dog.”

Sarah smiled.

“I’m going to call her Tootsie.”

The week after that I gave Sarah $15 for helping me weed my garden.

She used it to buy a small water bowl and a food bowl which she set on the back porch.

“Don’t encourage her,” her mother told me.

“She shouldn’t work for free,” I protested.

I got the frown and the “bad friend” stare.

Months rolled by and Tootsie’s bowls remained unused and the collar had begun to gather dust on the door knob of Sarah’s room. But she wasn’t deterred.

Instead of watching television in the evening Sarah began drawing pictures of dogs.

“What kind of thoughts are you putting in that child’s head?” Elizabeth asked me.

“I haven’t said anything,” I protested. I too was as baffled by Sarah’s behavior as her mother.

“She’s read something,” Elizabeth said. “Someone has her doing all that ’see it happening’ and visualize your dream’ stuff.”

“Well, it works you know,” I said.

“I know. That’s the problem. We can’t afford a dog,” Elizabeth said, chewing vigorously on a fingernail as she watched Sarah drawing.

Two weeks later I walked into the house and was greeted by a kitten who immediately clawed its way up my leg to swat at the dangling cord on my sweat pants.

“Owch! A cat!?” I asked. “I thought you said no pets.”

“Well, we were afraid someone would show up and give her a dog,” Elizabeth said.

“We’re hoping a cat will take her mind off of the dog.”

Sarah listened, petting the purring cat and smiling. The phone rang and as Elizabeth ran off to answer it I said to Sarah, “Well, you didn’t get the dog you wanted after all.”

“That’s okay,” she said. “I didn’t really want a dog. I just knew if I asked for a cat I’d have ended up with a goldfish and I hate fish.”

Is there something I want and am not going after? I need to follow Sarah’s example and just buy the collar.