‘Stupid Dog’,
I amusingly thought to myself as I rolled a ball down the hallway of my wife’s house before we were married. Expecting her dog, Petey, to eagerly go after it, he just sat there, looked down the hallway and then at me as if to say, ‘Nice trick human, now go after it.’
A dog is a man’s best friend no matter how many people may be around but they are a woman’s companion when she is alone. Petey was a maltipoo, his actual birth date is unknown since he was a rescue, taken in after being neglected by another family and given to Susan’s mother to help keep her company. Susan inherited Petey when her mother died of cancer and she reluctantly let him become part of her life as his independent personality fit hers. At first, Susan would complain that he would follow her everywhere around the house but then he started to settle down and his presence started to grow on her. He eventually became Susan’s touchstone to the memory of her mother. A physical link to the past, she would often hold him to help fill in the space where her mother had been.