R. Loeffelbein's DOG BLOG: "Dog Persons' Thoughts"

     "A dog is not a person's whole life, but a dog makes a person's life whole." That's a quote I picked up by Roger Caras that I think does man's best friend justice.

A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than it loves itself. --Josh Billings

Another quoted truism by a dog person, Ben Williams, is "There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face." I know that first-hand.

A dog also, of course, teaches a boy, according to humorist Robert Benchley, fidelity, perseverance, and to turn around three times before lying down.

Sue Murphy adds: "Have you ever walked into a room and forgotten why you walked in? I think that's how dogs spend their lives."

An unnamed writer in a Saturday Evening Post (July/August 2006) piece titled "It's A Dog's World," that came into my hands recently when my local library was cleaning out shelf space, had an epiphany I think quoting various celebrities presenting interesting thoughts about their dogs.

Let's lead off with Holbrook Jackson's over-the-top, "Man is a dog's idea of what God should be."

Ann Landers, in her column, once expressed a different opinion: "Don't accept your dogs' admiration as conclusive evidence  that you are wonderful."

"I've seen a look in dogs' eyes, a quickly vanishing look of amused contempt, and I am convinced  that basically dogs think humans are nuts." --John Steinbeck

Dereke Bruce: "In order to keep a true perspective of one's importance, everyone should have a dog that will worship him and a cat that will ignore him."

Ann Tyler: Ever consider what they think of us? I mean, here we come back from a grocery store with the most amazing haul: chicken, pork, half a cow. They must think we are the greatest hunters on earth."

Christopher Morley: "No one appreciates the very special genius of your conversation as the dog does."

That's refuted by comedienne Fran Lebouvitz with this: "No animal should ever jump up onto the living room furniture unless absolutely certain that he can hold his own in the conversation."

Humor writer Dave Barry: "You can say any foolish thing to a dog and the dog will give you a look that says, 'Wow, you're right. I never would have thought of that.'"

(Barry is also the one who has said, "Dogs feel very strongly that they should always go with you in the car, in case the need should arise for them to bark violently at nothing right in your ear.")

My dog barks regularly when sighting the poodle down the street. Rita Rudner has a thought on such occurrence: "Maybe he thinks poodles are members of a weird religious cult."

My father when I was 14; "If your dog is fat, you aren't getting enough exercise."

Me, also at 14: "Anyone who doesn't know what soap tastes like has never washed a dog. And, if you think dogs can't count, try putting  three dog biscuits in your pocket and then give him only two of them."

"Heaven goes by favor. If it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in." --Mark Twain

    

James Thurber: "If I have any beliefs about immortality, it is that certain dogs I have known will go to Heaven and very, very few persons."