I had always dreamed of owning a yellow lab. When I returned from a work trip last summer, I walked through the back gate and gawked at the small yellow, black-muzzled puppy bounding through the grass to greet me. My family named her Scout after the “tomboyish” narrator in Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird. I found out later that she was actually a yellow lab, German Shepherd mix, which explains her engaging facial features and enthusiastic, dark tail. I fell in love with her muscular appearance and intelligent personality the first day we met. Each day, after I returned from schooling and athletics, Scout would wait for me on the other side of the fence. As soon as she was tall enough, she learned to balance on her hind legs (which is difficult when her tail has a friendly mind of its own) and to catch an early glimpse of her owner. I had to take a picture.