Some of us have been fortunate enough in this life to have met, known or been owned by a dog that fits that description, and alas, since they live only a fraction of the time that we do, we lose them far too soon.

      I have had dogs in my life all of my life (and that's 66 years as of now!) and can't begin to count how many dogs that entails. Right now I have 8 of my own, and periodically live with many more when we are "in-house" boarding. As a child I always had at least two and sometimes 6 or 7 depending on how many of my Dad's sheepdogs I was caring for. Out of all those dogs, I can count about 3 that I have shared a life with that were absolutely the "more than human" dogs, as "Kick" was. I was never Kick's owner or trainer, merely his friend. I don't say that lightly, he truly was a friend. He knew my car when I would drive into his yard, and he knew that I enjoyed his very boisterous greeting when he liked you. Kick had a big deep voice and used inflection to convey his current message of the day when he sensed you liked his "talkiness." And Kick always had to have the last word. It wasn't the usual barking that a dog does when his space is being invaded, this was a word for word exchange.

 

"Well hello Kick, how are you today?"

"Bark bark, pause, Bark, bark."

"That's good, and how are the other dogs?"

"Bark."

"Okay, that's enough now Kick, I want to visit with your friend."

"Bark."

"Quiet now Kick.".

"Bark"

"That's enough, quiet."

"Bark"

     

      I don't care what else I would say to him, he always had the last "Bark". This was just a single "Bark".. He knew exactly what he was trying to say..and also knew exactly that he wanted -the last word."