Puppyness
She was born November 4th, 2011 in Platte City, Missouri and I first met her there on December 5th. Laying next to her eight other black siblings and at the belly of their golden Labrador mother, 
she was the only one to look up at me. She was also one of the three pups that did not have a white band on her neck.
I picked her up, fondled her fluffy little black body, made her parade around on a tabletop and fell in love with her. When I placed her back in the litter she had a white collar with my first name and phone number on it.
Driving home I knew I would be needing a special name. The radio was playing and I was halfway listening to the announcement of the discovery of Kepler-22b. I was also just finishing James Connor’s book “Kepler’s Witch” and Johannes has always been one of my favorite thinkers. Two weeks later I would again be driving back to Kansas City with Kepler sitting on M.J.’s lap.
Kepler settled in to our life in the old Historic Northeast house with ease. Her safe place was on a folded towel in a cardboard box in a large wire pen in the kitchen. But she was adventurous and was soon exploring all the white carpeted rooms of the house as she followed us around.
Exploring the outdoors was another matter. The short legs issue aside, it took her over a week to get off the front porch and down to the front sidewalk. We lived at one end of a long block or two blocks away from the park. It took well over another month before Kep and I made it to the intersection half way to the park.
When we finally made it to that intersection Kep started learning the ritual of “Street”. Every time, before we leave a curb to cross a road I would bring Kepler to a full sitting posture at the curb with the command “Street”. Often extending the pause just to teach her to settle before saying the magic word, “Cross”. On the command “Cross” we would proceed in an alert and orderly manner to the other side.
Within a year, we could be walking down the sidewalk and if I gave the command “Street”; Kepler would go sit at the curb and wait. To this day, even when she is leading, Kepler will get to a curb and pause until she hears the command “Cross”.
In another week Kepler could comfortably walk down to Kessler Park and from there the world was hers. We were lucky because a couple block from where we reached the park is the entrance to Cliff Drive, miles of a two lane scenic byway that was almost always closed to traffic. We were able to take endless off leash walks without worrying about safety.
Kepler had a nice fenced in backyard but one of her favorite places was leashed on the front porch. She could watch the world go by and fall in love with postal carriers, 
who always shared a biscuit. To this day she still enjoys a front porch perch and wants to share the love anytime she see in a postal uniform.