Dogs Rule and Pet-Haters Drool
While driving with a friend one day many years ago, I saw a dead animal on the side of the road ahead. As we drew nearer, my friend said, “Oh, it’s just a dog.”
At the time, I agreed, thinking he meant it wasn’t a person. But then as I gave it more thought, I remembered the time I saw him throw a rock at a stray and thought _He is simply not a dog lover. _Having a pet dog for as long as I can remember, this did not sit well with me and I “unfriended” him, not realizing at the time that I had just then coined a phrase and should have patented it. Be that as it may, I never hung around with him again.
Dogs are one of God’s greatest gifts to mankind! While living in the Canary Islands, Spain, for several years, Sunny and I had two doggies that we brought with us from the States – Figaro and Fausto. I didn’t realize for quite a few of those years that the ‘Canary’ name came not from birds, but rather from the Latin name for dog – canis. For a while, we had a Canarian dog and he was a winner. When we left to return back home to the States, we gave him to a friend whom we knew loved him as much as we did. [Those seven years in Spain were some of the best of our lives – as entertainers, that is.]
It was there in Gran Canaria that we gave a Command Performance for and afterwards dined with then-King Hussein of Jordan and his American wife, Queen Noor (Lisa Halaby, daughter of then FAA Director Najeeb Halaby). The _King and I* _did a lot of “hangar flying” since we are both pilots . . . and the ladies chatted like schoolgirls!
‘Siggy’ and ‘Sauso’ (our young son’s rendition of the dogs’ names of Figaro and Fausto) came home with us and lived out their lives in North Carolina – two loved ones who are waiting for us up there just as eagerly as we are for them! (And the many dogs since.)
We were, of course, so glad to return home, despite our great success in Gran Canaria, Spain and other parts of Europe.
* Great title for a book or even a movie, no?
