As long as I can remember I wanted a dog. Every December I would put a picture of a puppy under a Christmas tree with a bow around its neck on the family refrigerator. It never worked. No dog.

So in 1998, after I bought a house with a fenced yard, I got my first dog, Burt. A mature 6+ year old Cairn Terrier, Burt was perfect for me: mellow and agreeable, with oodles of terrier charm. He was terrific around children and at parties, even at children’s parties! Everyone liked Burt, that’s for sure.

Yogi is my new puppy. He was born on September 24, 2003, and came to live with me on November 6, a day after he was six weeks old. I got him from my friend Meg, who got Dazey, a full yellow Lab, in August. Turned out Dazey was pregnant! The story goes that she was kept in a pen and she must have gotten out or got pregnant through the fence! So we don’t know who or what the father is, but she had 11 puppies (8 black, 3 yellow). Four of the other pups are black with Rottweiller or German Shepherd markings, so Yogi could be turn out to be BIG!