Dogs... I Love 'Em!

I am reproducing this Attitudes in Living article I wrote for our last newsletter.  It got a lot of response from dog lovers so I thought I'd post it on our blog as well.  Not everyone wants to hear about legal stuff all the time!

My husband and I have three Golden Retrievers. Our oldest, Hearsay, is 8 years old and is bad, bad, bad. She loves people so much, that when you come over to our house, she will jump up on you, grab your shirt and pull you down to the ground so she can smother you with dog kisses. I’ve tried for 8 years to break her of that habit, to no avail. She is, however, our athlete in the family and loves to play ball… and more ball… and more ball… and more ball. We have figured the only way to stop her from grabbing shirts is to stuff a ball in her mouth. The cutest thing she does though is that she has to have a stuffed animal (we call it a “Lambie”) stuffed inside her mouth in order to go to sleep. That cuteness makes up for all the badness.


Our next Goldie is Piper. She is 7 years old and if you ever visit us at our office, you are more likely than not to find her up here at work with me. She is the only one of our dogs that is well behaved enough to enter into the professional world. Piper is a momma’s girl and stays pretty close to me, even following me into the stall in the women’s bathroom. Very annoying. But if I am ever sick, she lies beside me in bed and will not leave my side. On those rare occasions, we call her Pipey Nightengale.

The last to round out our trio of fluff is Buckeye. He is 5 years old and is the most gorgeous Golden Retriever you’ve ever seen. However, he is not the brightest of dogs. I call him my little Zoolander because what he doesn’t have in brains, he makes up for in really, really good looks. Buckeye will stare at himself in the mirror and I am sure he is saying to himself, “You are really, really a good looking dog.” Buckeye tries to be smart, but it never quite works out for him. When he is playing outside and doesn’t want to come in when I call him, he will walk over to the bushes and stick his head inside the bushes so he can’t see me. He truly believes if he can’t see me, then I can’t see him and thus he is adequately hidden from me. Never mind the 80 pounds of his butt sticking out in plain view!

I adore my dogs even with their goofy faults. Their love of me, my husband and every other visitor that comes to our house is without bounds. Gildna Radner once said, “I think dogs are the most amazing creatures; they give unconditional love. For me they are the role model for being alive.” Well said.