The trouble was, Goblin kept knocking off her devil horns. They were tied to the middle of her head, between her ears, with a thick cord, and she was able to dislodge it easily. Her sinister black cape, too, would fall askew and end up as a sinister black bib, which is fine for a lobster dinner but not for her grand Halloween march around Central Park.

So Rob stayed up until two o'clock in the morning sewing the devil horns to a sinister black sock, which he had trimmed to fit around Goblin's head and neck, with holes for the ears. The cape was knotted directly to the collar of her harness and draped nicely around the hook to which the leash attaches. Our little devil dog was ready for action, and this morning, at the crack of 11:30 (when we dragged ourselves out of bed), we were off!

Walking a Boston terrier named Goblin as she is dressed up like the devil was certainly an experience. Our trio was greeted in equal measure by pedestrians who squealed "Isn't that cute!" and gruff New Yorkers who did not bat an eye as the spawn of hell barreled down on them. I was hoping someone would say, "What a great Halloween costume!" so I could reply, "Today is Halloween?" We had to stop repeatedly to adjust horns and cape, which became disheveled in the eternal hunt for squirrels, but all in all, it was a successful outing.

She will revive her outfit for Joe's party tonight, and she cannot wait. Joe's dog is only dressing as a dinosaur, which are extinct, while Goblin gets to go as the shaper of U.S. foreign and domestic policy. In other words, she is alive and kicking has job security for another two years.