I have to keep cats because I can't stand to leave a dog to sitters. Now the cats have wound their way into
my heart. My late wife used to say that cats are like people, and dogs are what we wish we could be, in terms
of nobility and loyalty. I grew up with a water dog (Springer/Cocker Spaniel). He'd swim in the Des Plaines
River in the winter through the ice. When he was wet, you could see he didn't have any fat for insulation.
But if you didn't throw the stick out onto the ice again, the old boy would shake the icy water all over you.
He was a force of nature, a bolt of lightning.