Happy Star Trek Day!
For those who don’t know—or have somehow managed to avoid knowing this about me—I am a lifelong Star Trek fan.

And lately I’ve realized that I may be living with a character from the original series.

In the episode “That Which Survives,” Lee Meriwether plays Losira, a computer-generated image of a woman who keeps appearing out of nowhere to pursue specific members of the Enterprise crew.

She finds her designated person, looks at him and announces: “I am for you.”

This is my dog, Tena.

Tena has an unrelenting need to sit on me. Not near me. Not beside me. On me.

Wherever I sit, eventually Tena appears.

She can’t jump up by herself, so she stands there looking at me.

Waiting. Staring.

“I am for you, Mommy.”

I ignore her.

“I am for you, Mommy.”

I explain that there is a perfectly good spot right next to me.

“I am for you, Mommy.”

Eventually, I surrender and lift her up.

And then comes what I call Lion Kinging.

Tena doesn’t simply settle comfortably in my lap. She climbs as high onto me as she can get, plants herself there and surveys the world from the summit.

My lap becomes Pride Rock. She has conquered the heights.

Sometimes I tell myself she’s protecting me.

Nah. She’s Lion Kinging.

And I know exactly how this encounter is going to end.

Tena will find me.

Tena will stare at me.

I will give in and hoist her to the summit.

And she will sit triumphantly atop Mommy until Mommy needs to move some essential body part.

Happy Star Trek Day from Tena and me.

Or, as she would put it:

“Mommy, I am for you.”