My friend and her family got a new best friend. To replace loyal Jasper, their Schnauzer who passed away last year. My friend said her days had gotten lonely with the children at school and her husband at work. She hadn't realized how much company Jasper had been until he was gone. Jasper may have been deaf, but he was a good listener. He understood things. Like when he got sick and had to be sent to doggie heaven. Dogs are like that, aren't they?
     My friend and her family were able to locate the person from whom they bought Jasper. The woman told them about a two-year-old Schnauzer whose owner had gotten sick and could no longer take care of him. Even though her children had their hearts set on a tiny, cuddly puppy, my friend and her family went to JUST LOOK. Butch won them over with his happy eagerness. But his name didn't fit. They brought him home and decided to call him Willy. It's been two months now and Willy has settled into his new home in Minneapolis. He sleeps soundly at the bottom of my friend's and her husband's bed. No doubt dreaming of the summer walks he'll be taking on the nearby path around Lake Harriet
     I had a dog named Willy, too. She was a girl, so we spelled her name W-i-l-l-i-e. Her real name was Wilhelmina Something of Someplace Fancy, but she was just plain Willie to the five of us kids. Our Willie was German, also, but she didn't have the tall sturdy legs of her country's Schnauzer. A black Dachshund with copper-colored markings, her stubby little legs barely held her belly above the ground. Dad hadn't wanted Willie and he made no bones about it. We'd tried dogs before, he said, and they never worked out. When Willie got loose and had a one-night tryst with a neighborhood Romeo, we didn't find out right away. When the signs became obvious, there was heck to pay. After all, it was the 60s and nice girls didn't do things like that. I'm sure my parents were shocked and embarrassed, but when Willie let us know it was time, Dad sat on the floor in front of the refrigerator throughout the night and coached her through the process. In the morning, he was proud to show off Willie's puppies. Of course, there was no question that the progeny had to be given away. A friend and her family took one of the baby doggies to live with them in Saint Paul. When that puppy got older, we knew exactly which local lothario had stolen our poor Willie's innocence. Her son was short and fat and slobbery with the long droopy ears of a Bassett Hound.
     I don't remember what happened to Willie. I got married and moved away and when I came home for the holidays, Mom and my younger siblings had replaced her with a lab mix named George; a giant-sized hound who scared me. I prefer small dogs like Willie and the pooch I have now. Daisy is a Lhasa Apso, a breed that hails from Tibet. Which explains her Zen-like persona. She's never escaped to search for love in all the wrong places. A walk around Lake Harriet would tucker her out. Daisy just wants to snooze. She calls it meditation. I disagree. It gives us something to talk about.