As we grew into teenagers, we always had a menagerie of pets. At the time in suburban New Jersey, the only dogs that were caged or tethered were dangerous dogs. Friendly dogs like our Irish Setter mix Gizmo pretty much had the run of the town. He would follow us where ever we went, to school, into the town, and everybody knew him. I remember one angry woman calling Dad and complaining that Gizmo kept on bothering her dog who was in heat. Dad said to her if she was insisting he tether Gizmo, he would rather put him to sleep, because all the dog knows is freedom and would be miserable not being able to roam. Thankfully she backed down. As we sensed Gizmo was getting older, we went to a mixed-breed puppy mill called J.P. O’Neil’s on Route #1 in Princeton. We were interested in getting a smaller lap dog that Lisa would like. We selected a “Miniature Old English Sheepdog,” which is not a real breed. We named her Maudie, and she was a great dog. She did in fact look like a small version of a hairy sheepdog. She was black and white, had hair over her eyes, mustache, long hair all the way down to her big feet.  Extremely cute, smart, with a great personality. We allowed her to have a litter with a toy poodle and the result were seven puppies as cute as her, puppies we had no problem selling or giving away. However, Mom discovered that Maudie was a high maintenance breed. Because she was part poodle, her hair had to be trimmed periodically, and the amount of hair she had affected her rectum and our ability to find fleas and ticks — a daily chore in the summer. We taught her to lay down, which was a riot because she literally looked like a little rug. When we taught her to play dead, she obliged with only her little stubby tail wagging. Maudie was also featured in a play at school. She played in “Camelot,” and got a standing ovation. She was fantastic! One stormy evening we discovered Gizmo could no longer move, and so we took him to the vet’s office to have him put to sleep. We then got a another small puppy and called her Poco. Poco was smart and also had a great personality. One day while Kent was outside with the puppy, Mom came out of the house and got in her car to go on an errand. As she backed out of the driveway she heard a yelp and stopped the car. Kent then told her she just ran over and killed the little dog. Needless to say, Mom, Kent, and the entire family were very upset. We immediately went out and got another puppy, this one we were more careful of, but the new dog was as dumb as a box of rocks. We named her Echo and she and Maudie would be with us for the next trying years. A blessing indeed.