I’M IN LOVE…

…With 2 puppies.

They’re just 4 months old and they’ve already changed a quiet, sad, dark, lonely house into a happy puppy land.

Puppies have a way of doing that.

Our house went sad last Thanksgiving when our dog Moose,(Mussolini) died suddenly.

A month later our dog Shlomo died from a combination of age, (He was 17) and loneliness.

He missed his friend Moose.

What can I say about Shlomo?

I loved him.

He was my best friend.

He was sweet, smart and the greatest dog in the history of dogs.

When he passed, our house grew sad and quiet.

I remember many years ago when our first dog Panda died, and Judy and I were faced with our first truly empty nest.

“Should we get another dog?” Judy asked.

“Absolutely,” I answered. “In order to stay young, you must always have something annoying under your feet at all times.”

When your kids grow up and leave, you have to switch to a puppy. You have to make sure the puppy behaves, and is housebroken, and you must walk it until both you and the puppy are exhausted.

In the end it’s not that different from raising kids, except you don’t have to help with homework or attend those boring, horrible parent-teacher conferences.

Our daughter Jodi had the answer and she changed our lives when she went out and bought us not one, but two frisky, life affirming puppies .

Natrually, there was controversy.

There was the, “You’re both too old to get a dog”

from a number of people who truly love us.

.

Let me answer that for myself and for anyone who is anywhere over the age of 70.

You must never give up your life because of your age be it 60,70,80,or even 90.

Fight age with everything you have.

Think young, act young and you’ll stay young…forever.

Get a dog.

Having the kind of joy a dog will bring to your life will keep you young.

Our new puppies wake up every morning at 6:30am

I haven’t been up that early in fifty years but I wake up everyday and try to help Judy.

Our dogs are out of the house and peeing and pooing by 6:31.

Know something? Being up that early is not so bad

In fact it’s kind of fun.

Sad to say I lost the big controversy of what to name

our new puppies.

I wanted to name the boy puppy, Epstein

and the little girl puppy, Lamb chop.

Everyone hated my idea and so Judy noticed that the beautiful girl puppy had a black mask of hair around her eyes. She decided that the girl puppy looked like a thief and so she became Bonnie and the boy puppy

answers to the name Clyde.

How much do we love Bonnie and Clyde?

Let me tell you the story of what happened 17 years ago when we were in our car riding with our new pup, Shlomo.

During the ride , my daughter Jessie suddenly started choking and coughing.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"I don't know," she said. "I'm having an allergy attack. Do you think I might be allergic to Shlomo?"

"That would be terrible," was my answer. "If it turns out you are allergic to Shlomo I want to assure you that your mother and I would hate to do it but Jessie, we promise to give you away to a nice loving family."

We rode in silence for the rest of the trip. I could tell by the half smile on my daughter's face what she was thinking.

It's not easy having a wise ass for a father.