It’s All About the Dogs
From Chicken Soup for the Soul: My Crazy Family
By Connie K. Pombo

You can usually tell that a man is good if he has a dog who loves him.
~W. Bruce Cameron, A Dog’s Journey

“If anything ever happened to your mom, I’d be devastated,” my dad confessed. “But if something ever happened to Sadie Mae, I don’t think I could survive.”

“Dad, never tell Mom that!” I shrieked.

Sadie Mae was his German Shorthaired Pointer. I grew up knowing that it was all about the dogs. There was Pixie, Chrissy, Seymour, Brandy, Charlie, and, of course, Sadie Mae.

And somewhere behind the list of dogs were the kids: Sherrie, Connie, and David. Dad could never remember our names, but why should he? He knew all the dogs’ names. We knew where we stood — our pedigrees couldn’t measure up to those of our housemates. Our human plans were often altered to accommodate the “doglings” because they always came first. (Keep reading)