It seems everyone has a dog.  Actually, almost 60 percent of American homes have a pet of some sort, and two of three of those do have at least one dog. There are a total of 78 million dogs in the U.S. right now, give or take.  And of course, everyone of those people or families who have a canine, whether it's a purebred, a fashionable boutique mixed breed or just your all-American mutt, thinks their pooch is the cutest around.  That is not exactly true, but for the most part dogs are like babies.  If they are cute, they are the cutest; and if they are not very good looking, the owners think they are so ugly, they are cute.

People tend to be divided into two types: those that are dog people and those who  aren't.  Unfortunately not everyone who has a dog is a dog person.  This blog (or the book I hope it turns into) is for dog people.  What I mean by dog people is people who view dogs as the greatest invention to -- and for -- mankind.  Dog people talk to their dogs not as dogs but as other people.  People with four legs and tragically without opossable thumbs.  If dogs just had those darn opossable thumbs, life would be about perfect.  Just think what else dogs could do for mankind.  They wouldn't just be our best friends, loyal to the end, nonjudgmental and everything else that makes dogs dogs, but they would be able help a lot more with the chores.

But I digress.

Some dog owners view their pets as just that, property.  They are nice to have around, especially for the kids.  But at the end of the day, they feel a dog is still just an animal, no more and no less.  This blog/book is not for them.

Then there are some dog owners who border on the maniacal when it comes to treating a dog like people.  They dress them like little people and are the ones that keep places like Petco and Petsmart, and the luxury doggy hotels, and the manuafacturers of gourmet dog cuisine in business.  There's nothing really wrong with those people. After all,   I suppose it is better to ere on the side of uber-spoiling when it comes to dogs.  But this blog/book isn't really for them either...not specifically anyway.  They can probably relate to a lot that's written here, but on the whole I am sure they may feel the subjects of this blog/book border on being abused.  To those people, sorry but get over it.

This blog is about the relationship my wife Brenda and I have with our dogs, the two we currently have (or should I say that have us) as well as the ones we have previously had together or individually before we met.

Hope you enjoy!

Onah -- short for Onomatopoeia Zadora -- has been the matriarch of the Mueller canine clan since older brother Ollie passed on in November of 2010 at the ripe old age of 14.  Onah in a Shih Tzu/Brussels Griffon mix we brought home from a breeder in the Fall of 2007.  She had been "discounted" in the CraigsList ad because we found out that she was the smallest and next to last to be taken in the litter.  As our first girl, Onah quickly staked claim on the top of the pecking order when she joined Ollie and then-youngest sibling Otis in the household.  Small but strongwilled and very smart, Onah is our Sugar Plum Fairy Princess.  She can be discribed as a spare rib with hair, and as evident  in some the pictures that follow, a Queen Bee with attitude.

Onah and Hazel (short for Olivia Hazel i.e O'Hazel as in O'Henry) are best friends who love each other even in playful sparing.  About the same size tip-to-toe, the similarity ends there.  Mirroring their coloring contrast, Hazel is as thick in mind and body as Onah is not  And weighing half again as much as her older sister, "Blondie" is as stingy with the sugars as Onah if free to give.