by Ryan Gray

Created on: July 23, 2011   Last Updated: April 05, 2012

As far back as my memory takes me, I lived with dogs every day from the time I was in grade school. But they were medium-sized dogs like Schnauzers and cock-a-poos.

We even had some small ones for a while when three puppies were born. (“I thought YOU were watching (the adult dogs)! You know she is in heat! Those two should not have been left alone...Look what happened!”)

When you’re around dogs all the time, it is very easy to become attached to them. When you live with a dog (or more) every day, they sit by you, lay on you, play with you, and many other things that you get used to.

That’s why it was very strange for me when I went away to college. It was the first time in my life I lived without a dog – although my roommates had some similar habits. Then I got married to a lady who was in love with cats. But eventually she and my sons decided they wanted to bring a dog into the family, too. Who was I to argue?

They surprised me with the announcement that they wanted a big dog to keep outside. One they could visit from time to time that would allow them to keep the cats inside. Getting an “outside” dog was going to be another new experience for me.

In the weeks that followed, my wife made connections with a resident of a nearby town that had some yellow Labradors he wanted to sell. I knew nothing about that breed of dog, but a little research revealed that they are very energetic, very nice dogs who are easy to get along with. For a family with two little boys, that sounded like a pretty good match to me.

We went to the man’s house and there were four hefty yellow Labradors waiting to greet us. Three of them came running up to the fence barking. As we talked with the owner, one of them started bouncing up and down, squealing and looking like he could come through the fence at any moment. Of course, that is the one the owner wanted us to take home.

But as we discussed other options, I noticed the fourth dog sitting off in the distance with his tongue going in and out, as if he were licking a Popsicle. He was staring at us like the other dogs, but he wasn’t nearly as excited or loud. He was the cute, little boy at the back of the classroom who hardly gets noticed because he doesn’t raise his hand.

Well, when I noticed him and pointed him out to my wife, we wanted to get to know him better. After some pleading with the owner, he agreed to let us do that when he gave us the dog’s birth certificate

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>