“Why you want to leave me?”

Certain phrases work their way into our family vernacular and, over time, I forget where they originated. Any time we leave the house without them, Maggie and Jack will give us such a plaintive look that my husband will inevitably say, “Why you want to leave me?”

That’s what immediately came to mind when I discovered this scene in V’s bedroom a few weeks ago:

She was packing for our upcoming visit to Jim’s parents in Arkansas when Maggie decided to climb into her suitcase.

Maggie – a Maltese-Yorkshire Terrier mix we refer to as “Morkie” – joined our family as an eight-week-old puppy. She’s never been abandoned like Eddie (the Yorkie we rescued in 2007) so there’s no real reason for her to panic at the sight of suitcases and boxes. She even comes with us for easily half the trips we take. But apparently leaving her behind even once was more than enough. She never wants it to happen again.

And though car rides make poor Jack-Jack motion sick, it didn’t take long for him to get in on the begging, too. So in my head, there were now two pitiful voices asking, “Why you want to leave me?”

Turns out the phrase comes from the movie “My Big, Fat Greek Wedding”, and it’s joined things like “Chip-Chop-Chip” and “Bazinga!” as part of our family’s repertoire of in-jokes and sarcastic retorts. (If, like me, you can’t recall the context, this clip will refresh your memory.)

Maggie and Jack-Jack’s begging didn’t win them a place in the car, but they’ve always got a place in my heart. Now if they’d just get out of the suitcase…