Oscar, why do you always come when called? Is it simply your good breeding? -- Howard

That is an excellent observation, Howard. I always come when called (if I deem the request appropriate and reasonable).

As to my breeding, my mother is a yellow lab who was rescued as a stray by a family in Virginia. Weeks later, I was born -- along with five siblings. Not all are yellow like me -- some of the markings on the others suggest that my father may have been all or partly hound. We spent our first four months playing in an outdoor pen, when a lady named Sonja Moore from an organization called Save-a-Pet came down, loaded us and forty other dogs that would have most likely wound up in a southern kill shelter into crates in a horse trailer, and drove us up to Vermont.

I think Sonja is a great lady, but I also think her trailer weaves slightly on the highway, so I got a little sick on my way up here. Therefore, I am not a fan of crates (research shows that it is the rare dog who actually lives in a "den" anyway). I do, however, enjoy car rides, as long as I can stick my head out the window (even in the dead of winter) and especially if I get to visit a dog park or go for a run at the end of it. I also love Vermont, where -- thanks to Sonja -- all 40-something of us were placed in loving homes.