Buck and Max

Buck is real, and so is the ear thing. He’s a curly cream doodle, roughly three times Max’s size, and the two of them have a standing arrangement at South Pointe Park that looks a lot like professional wrestling. Max opens every match the same way: he goes straight for Buck’s ears and hangs on. Buck lets him, for about two seconds, and then the laws of physics take over. Max gets flipped, rolled, flattened, and sat on. He has never won a single round. He has also never once looked like he minded. When it’s over they lie in the grass nose to nose, and the next morning Max is scanning the park for Buck before he hits the ground running.