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We got some bad news about our dog Louie, the world’s greatest dog. Writing his story here is therapeutic, so forgive the oversharing.<\/p>\n
In January, 2013, my wife forwarded me this email:<\/p>\n
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She doesn’t usually use 5 exclamation points or 6 question marks, and the unusual punctuation betrayed her excitement. The answer to “What do we do??????”, of course, was to claim one of these puppies; this would be her first dog.<\/p>\n
The father of these pups — Asher was his name — was a special dog, a little guy who reigned supreme at the local gift shop, Wild Goose Chase. He greeted visitors with kindness, bright eyes, and a wagging tail, easily claiming his title as The World’s Cutest Dog. His owners even printed up his own card, one my wife kept in her wallet just for this opportunity.<\/p>\n
A couple of months later, after Asher’s pups had grown up a bit, we met the very tired mom and the whole gang of her offspring at their home in western Massachusetts. We chose our favorite — a spotted little guy we called Louie, and brought him home to join our family.<\/p>\n
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Love at first sight.<\/p>\n
Louie was no purebred, as the black spots gave away the unfancy part of his genetic lineage. Embark<\/a> (yes, we checked) told us he was half Coton du Tulear, and half “super mutt,” a term I particularly like. Since this was always cumbersome to explain, when others asked what kind of dog he was, I often just said he was a mix, or a Havanese, since that’s what he looked like and “Havanese” was easier to say.<\/p>\n Over the years, we’ve bonded with Louie in a way that only dog lovers can understand — it’s nothing unusual, but it’s magic nonetheless. Here’s what happened:<\/p>\n The years of love flowing from him made us utterly smitten. Someone came to my office recently, and noted that though the pictures of my family outnumbered the pictures of Louie, the biggest<\/em> one in size was the painting my son’s friend made of our doggie, in exchange for a contribution we made to an animal services organization. Guilty as charged.<\/p>\n And yes, I’ve featured him here on this site, probably too much, and probably to the annoyance of those who just don’t get the dog thing. A sampling:<\/p>\n So lots of Louie here, the Star of the Show on this ID blog.<\/p>\n When I threw his toy or a ball, and he chased after it, he came romping back in a way perfectly embodied by the Charles Barsotti cartoon with the caption, And the crowd roars!<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n
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