Nick Charles:  Oh, it’s all right, Joe. It’s all right. It’s my dog. And, uh, my wife.
Nora Charles:  Well you might have mentioned me first on the billing.

— The Thin Man

I’m not really a dog person.  I had dogs growing up, but I was always closer to my cat.  Cats fit my personality better – Let me talk to you when we both want to be talked to, and otherwise, leave me alone.  The problem is this:  I seem to be every dog’s favorite human being.  Shadow decided that I was his human soon after he came to our home, and Moonshine has carried on since Shadow died.  Where I go, he goes.  What I do, he wants to help.  What I eat, he wants to share.

And darn it, the fool has grown on me.  It’s gotten to the point that I don’t mind so much when he lays across my legs while I’m reading, or the early morning lick across the forehead that tells me it’s time to get up and make breakfast.  I know that both Moonie and Blue will always stand guard while we sleep, and I’ve never seen a human companion be so gentle with the kids as I do the dogs.

I love Irish Woman with all my heart, and she is going to be my companion ’til death do us part.  But the company of the dogs is almost as good.

I may not be a dog person, but I’m learning.