Helping Your Dog Love The Boat As Much As You Do

Everything Dog

My Dog is a Self-Serving Bitch–And I’m Ok With That

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You hear it all the time. Dogs give unconditional love. No matter how badly someone mistreats them, they can’t help but return love. Malarkey. I don’t think dogs are better than people (although they do have their moments). If a dog appeases someone who kicks him, he does it because it will help him survive. …

What Does Your Dog Tell People About You?

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Dogs are like bumper stickers. They reveal to other people something we want them to know about us. We’re all familiar with the dark side of people using dogs to say something about themselves: spoiled, rich girls who carry status dogs in beaded bags or urban toughs with a well-muscled dog on the end of …

Do Dogs Shrink or Grow our Worlds?

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Is everyone I know just like me? I don’t want to live in a bubble. And that can be hard to prevent. I live in a town that is self-consciously progressive. The kind of town Fox News talking heads would describe as full of granola-eating, Birkenstock-wearing, Volvo driving elitists who are out of touch with …

Craft the Good Life? Or Get a Cat?

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My greatest ambition When I was 14 I wanted to be president. Or at least Secretary of State. Thirty years later, my ambitions have minified a bit. Now, my goal is to be a slacker. Or at least to support myself in some way that doesn’t require me to wear shoes. Or a bra. That …

Finding Your Perfect Match – How Much Can You Put Up With?

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Like most of you, I read descriptions of dogs looking for homes. In their effort to make sure the dogs go to the right homes, these descriptions are, at the same time, celebratory (cuddly, smart, energetic) and cautionary (best to a home without children, prefers to be only dog, needs lots of exercise). I’ve never …

The Limits of Friendship

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Spending so much time online has gotten me thinking about friendship. What makes you someone’s friend? When you meet people online, you can only know about them what they choose to reveal. But isn’t that true for all our friends? Friendship with Dogs I’m never quite sure how to describe my relationships with dogs. But …

What Does Your Dog Call You?

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Honey is not my baby. And I am not her “mommy.” Honestly. Recently someone noticed how Honey liked to carry a red Kong in her mouth. I replied, “Yes, her mother does too.” They stared at me blankly for several long seconds before I realized what was going on and said, “Y’know, her birth mom. …

Agatha & Christie – A Remembrance

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I got married. I bought a house. I was finally a grown up. I only needed a dog. The Search The Philadelphia SPCA was a bleak place. The cacophony of barking dogs was deafening and the smell reminded me of childhood field trips to the hippo pool at the Baltimore zoo. My eye was on …