hey Bones,
You are a doggone

good participant on the Animal Stories thread (yeah...I'm gonna rename it, so it's not limited to animals one "owns"--or who own one...)
Do you have a pet of your own?
If not, is there one you can get to know, or borrow?
Once when I lived in a tiny house on the Eastern Shore I used to go have "dates" with Riley, a Chesapeake Bay retriever. I'd spend the night at my artist friend's tenant house on a huge plantation, near which lived another artist, owner of Riley (hey, I liked my friend but I was IN LOVE WITH Riley). Very early in the a.m. I'd take my coffee out on the porch and watch the mist over the field and all the amazing waterfowl (things like great blue herons, cranes, egrets) appear...and within a few minutes I'd hear the other artist's screen door bang and out would come Riley, heading straight for me. He's come to take me for a walk. Friendliest dog I almost ever knew... Those were great walks.
A while later I dumped him and got my own amazing pound-rescue pooch, Big, a yellow Lab. Riley had an amazing capacity to find substitutes...didn't mind a bit.

Hops