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Email Story to a Friend June 2, 2006 It's a dog's life My wife and I have two wonderful dogs who graciously share their house with us. We used to have three dogs, but after Bud died, we're down to two. Dogs in our house are not pets, they're family. Since no one in the family lives outdoors, the dogs don't either. They aren't pampered, just loved enormously. And they love us unconditionally. It's good to experience that kind of love as that is what we all aspire to. The dogs don't do much aspiring. They just are. And in their own quiet Zen way, they are our teachers. What's left of my salary, after we buy essentials such as aspirin and Brie, goes to the dogs. We've been sending money to a place called Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah, which lovingly cares for more than 1,500 animals in a compound that stretches for miles. Many of these animals are dogs. Some of them will find homes. Those who don't have a home for life at Best Friends — or in my wife's heart. She is the real dog-lover. She came to it naturally. I am learning it by her example. And so it was that my bride drove to Kanab to tend to the dogs for a week as a volunteer. I was supposed to accompany her, but my day job intervened with weeks of intensive training on new computer programs that were replacing the old fiddly way we used to do things with new, even more fiddly ways of doing things. Nerds' revenge — or, "The more things change, the more they stay the same." Advertisement I was left at home with our two canines. Phone calls from Utah raved about the warm days, the great meals, the views of Zion National Park. As I described our days of rain, cold and snow on the mountaintops and my geekishly programmed computer at work, I was expecting her to give me an address so I could send her things to her, along with our dogs. But she didn't. Instead she drove back with one of the friends — the four-legged kind. As is typical of my wife's St. Francis predilection and nurse's training, she chose a dog that was older and had a few problems that needed her attention. When he was in Utah, the dog was Henry. Who knows what he was called when he walked the streets of Los Angeles, before he was picked up by the Humane Society and slated to be put down because no home could be found for him. Best Friends rescued him and kept him there for six weeks knowing that someone like my wife would find him. So here he is. But he can't be Henry in Oregon because we have a grandson in New York named Henry. What do you call a very handsome, lovable brindle greyhound male dog, about 10 years old, very slim and missing five teeth? Exactly! That's what we thought, too, so we named him Teddy. He was Sammy in the car from Utah to Oregon, then Benjy. He really looks like a Pierce, but in a house with a Gus and a Rufus, Pierce sounds a bit pretentious. So, for now, he's Teddy. Gus and Rufus — who are both about 500 years old — have welcomed Teddy with a quick look and a sniff and act as if he's part of the wallpaper. There have been a few tense moments with our cat, Celeste, who's working on her third cycle of nine lives. Teddy likes to get two inches from her face and stare at her. She's nearly blind, so she can't stare back at the big, hulking blur filling up her field of view. What Celeste does at these moments is to make those cat warning sounds that, if you're smart, you heed. Until Teddy gets the message, my wife has been swooping in and sweeping him away. A mother's work is never done. When you have two dogs who are both about 500 years old and a cat who's working on her third cycle of nine lives, you can't have your bedroom upstairs anymore. They can't negotiate the steps. So my wife and I moved downstairs into one of the bedrooms where our sons grew up. Perhaps the dogs, in their Buddah-like way, set the whole thing up, anticipating the day when we, too, can't make it up and down the stairs like we used to. We have come full circle. We now live where our children once did. And we have gone to the dogs. I can't think of a place I'd rather be. Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2006 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback www.bingo.com Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker Custom Build Computers Discount Hotel Reservations --> online casinos news Ashley Furniture HomeStore Send Flowers California Casinos GMAT Prep Windermere Van Vleet Sports Equipment Online Casino Reviews Entertainment Guide --> Online Casino Fundraisers Sudoku Online Casinos Canada Online Pharmacy Advertisement s Advertisement