Once, a couple years ago, I went to Massachusetts to visit a friend of mine. She had this big hairy golden retriever mix named Sammy. This is one of the few names I won't be changing, because it just suited him very well. He was the sweetest dog ever. I have a dog of my own that I love very much, but he's kind of a grumpy old man. Grumpy old dog. Sammy was just sweet.

While I was visiting, I slept in a downstairs bedroom, and my host warned me that Sammy might try to get in bed with me, but that if he did, I could just shoo him away. As dogs go, Sammy didn't smell particularly bad, and it was kind of cold, so I really didn't mind anyway. So, about the time I was going to nod off, sure enough...here came Sammy and parked beside the bed. He sat there for a minute, then put one paw on the bed. He looked at me for a second, and I was sure he was asking me, 'is this ok with you?' I think I patted him on the head or something, and in a few minutes, he put his other front paw on the bed. And waited again. 'Is this alright?' I didn't protest, so next he pulled his torso onto the bed and waited again. I was amazed at how polite he was being. Most dogs would've just leapt right up on the bed. He was inching himself on in pieces. Probably took five minutes or so for him to get his entire self onto the bed. He finally gave me a look that seemed to say, 'well, if you're sure it's alright with you....' and hauled his back legs onto the bed and snuggled up with me. For a dog, he was quite a gentleman.

It's kind of funny too, because I was needing a friend right about then. For reasons which I'm not gonna go into right here and now, that visit with that particular friend was a little difficult for me. I was feeling pretty lonely. I don't know if dogs just know these things, or if it's coincidence, or if any dog is pretty much always going to want to climb into a big soft bed and cuddle up...but whatever it was, I appreciated it. And I got a good laugh out of his approach...like he was asking permission every step of the way.

Sammy died this week. I'm really sad about that -- partly because he was such a good, sweet dog, and partly because I know my friend loved him very much and she's going to miss him.