All of my life I’ve been a dog person.
That’s mostly because that is what I had as pets all of my life. I had one the instant I was born. Shadow, a German Shepherd, was already part of the family as I began my life. My brother and I spent our childhood with that big dog, running around the yard, fetching tennis balls and sticks, exploring the backyard woods, and he was always tough yet gentle. He was trusting and kind to everyone, even to the point of enduring pain – a group of teenagers from the nearby junior high once put out their cigarettes on his head, and he did nothing to them. But as we got older and faster, he got older and slower. Arthritis crept into his bones and made life difficult for him. The day we had to put him down was one of the harder days of my youth.