Mario and Luigi

            A devoted Veni, Vidi, Vito reader – okay, okay, it’s my brother Michael – recently commented that Vito always looks like he is having fun when he is with Nick.

            Nowhere was this more apparent than during their day at the beach, when I worried that their wild activities would land them on the next episode of that Animal Planet show, “Animal Cops: Detroit.”

            See, there’s no danger of "Animal Cops: Detroit "Rescuer Aaron Miller sniffing out me with his white van. When I’m at the beach with Vito, I do nice activities, like I throw a stick and tell him to fetch it. Vito swims right past the stick, completely ignoring it and me. And I’m just fine with that because television cameras – and handcuffs – are an unlikely result of our small, boring activity.

             But, when Nick plays with Vito, they become completely interactive – like a real-life Mario and Luigi video game.

            On this particular day at the beach, Vito jumped into Nick’s arms, and Nick hurled Vito into the lake. Vito emerged from the water with a crazed smile on his face and begged to be tossed in again. More than happy to oblige, Nick threw him into the lake. This happened over and over.

             “Stop!” I yelled, but just like the stick I threw for him to fetch, Vito completely ignored me. He jumped back in Nick’s arms. Nick acted like he was laughing too hard to answer, but funny enough, he had the energy to toss Vito back in the lake, for the fifteenth time.

            Please don’t tell me if you happen to catch my son and dog on the next episode of  … “Animal Cops: Up North.”