“Where’s Willow?”

It seems like only yesterday that Where’s Waldo? was a popular book in our home. We play a new game now: “Where’s Willow?”

I didn’t think it would be hard to keep track of a four-month-old fifty-five pound Great Dane puppy. But around our house, we ask, “Where’s Willow?” several times a day. She’s both quiet and curious, so she could be anywhere.

• She might be in the backyard, behind a shrub chewing on mulch or trying to lick grease off the back of the grill. If she’s lying in the sun up against the side of the house, you can’t see her from the window. Sometimes the wind blows the back door shut and she’s stuck out there.

• She’s still small enough to curl up in a chair for a nap, so she could be in a bedroom or the living room.

• But she also likes to stretch out on the Nugget (grandkid’s play sofa) or the bottom bunk in the back bedroom.

• She has nosed her way into closets and nudged the door shut behind her, trapped until we go around looking for her.

• She knows how to duck behind the kitchen island if she knows you are looking for her.

• She will follow me out into the garage unnoticed, and then get stuck out there when I come back in the house.

• I have even found her in her crate taking a nap on a lazy afternoon.

Willow is growing at a rate of one-half pound a day. Each day it gets harder for her to disappear around the house. But for now, if I don’t have time to check out all her hideouts, all I have to do is open up the Milk-Bone canister in the kitchen. If she isn’t trapped somewhere, both dogs will be sitting at my feet before I have finished lifting the lid. Works every time.