Dogs and Cats

There is fable about dogs and cats.

A puppy wags its tail when the master approaches. The puppy thinks "You feed me and love me and take care of everything for me. You must be some sort of god."

A kitten licks its paw when the master approaches. The kitten thinks "You feed me and love me and take care of everything for me. I must be some sort of god."

In my experience, that's the difference between cats and dogs.

From Wikipedia

I like dogs. Not little yippy dogs, but dogs that are at least medium size. I have a preference for Norwegian Elkhounds, but my favorite dog in my entire life was an Elkhound. Smokey and I did everything together. Mom didn't let him in the house, but she didn't let her four boys come in the house either, except in bad weather. So Smokey and I often sat in the back yard and discussed the weighty things of the world of a teenage boy. Smokey was a good listener.

I had two dogs when I first got married, a young man in his twenties with a new wife, a new job and no kids. The pups were sisters. They both got the parvovirus and one died. Tisha survived, but I wasn't good about spending time with her. I left her alone too much and she ran away a few years later. That ranks high on my list of life's regrets.

So I determined that if I ever owned a dog again it would come into the house with me and be part of the family.

Darling and I had a dog discussion before we got married. Since she was only willing to have a tiny dog in the house and I didn't want a tiny dog, we don't have dogs. Darling had a couple cats when I met her. Over the years kittens in dire distress have joined the family. No dogs, though.

Also from Wikipedia

My Aunt Jan breeds Bouviers. She doesn't have a web page or anything that I know of, though. They do have a club page, and Aunt Jan was the President of the club.  I didn't even know such a dog existed until she talked to me about them. Wikipedia says "The Bouvier des Flandres is a herding dog breed originating in Flanders. They were originally used for general farm work including cattle droving, sheep herding, and cart pulling, and nowadays as guard dogs and police dogs, as well as being kept as pets."

She and my cousin have raised them for years, and have a number of champions from their kennels. That's kind of cool.

My buddy Bill owns Brittanys. I get a Christmas card from him every year with him, his wife and his three dogs. One of his older Brittanys died not too many months ago, so Bill plans to replace her with a new pup. Bill plans to go pick the puppy up across the holiday weekend. He's going to pick from this litter.

So, they're the cutest, aren't they? And if that doesn't tug your heart strings, try the web site of the breeders who still have the litter, Ammo's Brittanys.

If that picture didn't make your heart warm - well, you're a cat person.