You will never know loneliness when you have a dog, when you lose that dog it will be loneliness like you've never known.

The dog looked up in entreaty. Liquid brown eyes begged: Take me with you. I’ll be good. Oh, the lies that dogs told.

He was always eating things of hers. Clothing, books, family heirlooms.

Animals know. They know how a soul is stitched together. They know what it's made of before anyone else gets a clue.

Dogs (like rats) are multitalented but they are also not very smart the way humans are. A recent book, devoted to the intelligence of dogs, is 250+ pages long (Stanley Coren, The Intelligence of Dogs: A Guide to the Thoughts, Emotions, and Inner Lives of Our Canine Companions, 1994). Interestingly, despite careful qualifications by Coren regarding definitions, the ranking of breeds by intelligence literally made newspaper headlines. We are obviously fascinated by the notion that dogs - or at least certain breeds of dog - might, just might, be really, really smart. It all makes as much sense as evaluating humans on our ability to sniff for bombs or echo-locate.

Loyalty deserves Accolades not as a Meal on Food Plates... (in reference to yulin dog meat festival in china)