Lucy’s brown chair used to belong to my father. It was his favorite chair for years. Whenever I would go over to visit my parents, my father would be sitting in the brown chair. If Dad got up to get the paper or something, invariably Lucy would plop down and make herself at home in his chair. He didn’t seem to mind. Dad would just sit somewhere else and let her sit in his chair. She fit in it so well.

Then came the day that my parents got some new furniture and they needed to get rid of the brown chair. I made a bid for it and my Father brought it over to the house. At first my husband covered it with a sheet when he wasn’t sitting in it so that he wouldn’t get dog hair all over himself. Eventually we moved into our new house and in this house we have dog friendly rooms and dog unfriendly rooms in the house. My husband’s real chair is in a dog unfriendly room in the house so there is no danger of Lucy getting in his chair. So now the brown chair is almost entirely Lucy’s domain.

I teach violin lessons to children and young adults and the chair is usually right next to the piano (except for when I move it for the Lucy Cam). Theoretically, my students are to stand during their entire lesson, but I have just a few who “sneak a sit� in Lucy’s chair while I’m writing assignments on their study sheets. They know they should be standing so it doesn’t last for long, but they do get some dog hair on their backs when they accidentally sit in Lucy’s chair. (Lucy is in the back room while I teach because the overtones of the violin bother her sensitive ears.) After lessons, Lucy pads through the kitchen and hops back into her chair. My students giggle at her because she makes the chair rock back and forth. She looks like a serious little person when she sits up in the chair.

When my friend JJ calls me, we talk for hours. Sometimes while we talk I just find myself rocking back and forth in the brown chair. Lucy looks at me from her temporary spot on the floor, but she doesn’t seem to mind. She’s willing to share. She’s well aware of the proven fact, and it is truly as it should be; the brown chair is now 100% Lucy’s chair.