Happy Dogs

George was quite intimidating when I first met him. This was to be expected as I happened to be courting his first born child, Rachel. But it took no time at all before he made me feel completely welcome in his home, and really didn't seem to mind at all the attentions I gave his daughter. In fact, the entire family made me feel so comfortable right from the outset - and I think that George set the tone and everyone else followed suit. I'm sure that if I had rubbed him the wrong way, his wife and kids would have sensed that and it could have meant the gradual disintigration of my relationship with Rachel. So I thank him for that.

When Rachel and I decided to marry, I decided that it was right and proper to ask George for his daughter's hand. We set up a meeting at the dining room table and when I arrived that evening I think I was at my worst. I recall that I was very nervous...literally shaking in my boots. I can't actually recall very much about the conversation that we had except the ending. When I finally summoned the courage to ask for his blessing to marry Rachel, he smiled broadly, cleared his throat and declared: "Well....By ALL MEANS !!" And I thank him for that, although, to this day, I am still thinking about his answer and I often wonder if there could be more than one valid interpretation.

My father passed away about four years later. George, although he knew no one can replace your own dad, came as close as anyone could to accomplishing exactly that. Pop treated me with so much kindness and understanding over the years. I always felt he treated me as one of his own boys. And I thank him for that.

In the past 25 years I have had many great conversations with Pop. Discussions covering so many varied topics. He was interested in just about everything and could converse easily on virtually any subject, profound or mudane. Some of the most memorable talks we had were about the simplest of things. One of our recurring themes seemed to be "dogs". Pop loved dogs and loved talking about dogs, regaling me with stories of Fritzie, Bernie, and many other long gone family pets. Last Thursday was my last conversation with Pop. We discussed a number of things and had a very happy and pleasant talk. Finally he asked the question he had asked me so many times before: "How's Maya?" ( Maya is my dog )
"Maya is just great, Pop.", I replied...."I was just outside and I looked over at her and she was just standing there smiling at me !"

There was a short silence, and then a soft chuckle.

"Happy dogs...." was the response I heard over the phone. It wasn't so much a response to me. More like he was simply describing the image I had put in his mind.

"Happy dogs..."

Thank you Pop.