I grew up with a dog named Sandy. Sandy was killed by a car when I was in second grade. We never replaced Sandy. A couple of years later I started my first paper route delivering Newsday on Long Island. This is where I developed a fear of dogs. When you have a paper route and you have to deliver the Sunday news at 6am you learn to ride your bike with one leg.......so you can kick the strays with the other! There was one Irish Setter on Oxford Street that scared me to death. I remember walking home from the bus when I was in grammar school and this "small horse" ran out of its house and took a chunk out of my leg! I feared German Shepherds even more!

As I grew older this fear never really waned and on top of that I didn't understand why people put up with the mess of having a dog....the hair, the smell, the other obvious issues...

Well, here comes Zorro! When we were in Florida my kids got to the age where they wanted a dog. I was against it for many of the above reasons, plus we travel a lot. Who will take care of the dog when we are gone?

It turns out that our white Westie Terrier named Zorro....go figure...my daughter named her....is my dog. Zorro sleeps at the foot of my bed...he meets me at the bottom of the stairs so I can walk him outside to get the papers...he greets me when I come home...he sits at my feet when I watch TV in the living room or when I am at the kitchen table. Zorro is there...win or lose...ready to be walked...or scratched...fed....or chased....

Now I know how people feel about their pets. Zorro is part of the family.

Pony Up!

Coach Doh