"I've heard good things about this JCVD movie"

That line might actually work on my wife, we caught a trailer and it looked interesting.

I had one of those dogs. He was a 120-pound male Rottweiler named Borris with the strength to crush concrete in his jaws. But he had no natural fear of any humans, thinking that everyone was his friend. He loved nothing better than to sit around and chill with people whenever we had company.

He was useless as a watchdog. He would have sold me out for a McDonald's Happy Meal. As long as the burglar left the TV, he could have everything else in the house.

He was a legend at our vet's office because he would tolerate any indignity or discomfort without complaint as long as loved on him afterward and told him he was a good boy.

There was only one time he was aggressive to a person and that's because he thought that person was hurting his cat. You didn't mess with Borris' cat.

Since you pointed out your ongoing little victories, I notice my own now as they occur, and I see them as a cartoon drawing you might do. Thank you for calling them to my attention.

...and you're right, K, these "little victories" feel great! Thanks for celebrating the small joys that keep us going. Pile up enough tiny grains of happiness, and you build a dam to help hold back the sloshing waves of bad stuff that life throws at you.

LOL!

So Baaad.

Your books are great Keef! Keep em coming!

Just got the chronicles from amazon and am lovin it!

Keep up the good work!

I think there's a lot of those dogs. Our old dog was a black Shepherd (who looked like she belonged to a Gestapo officer) with a deep bark that scared the bejeezus out of passers by. If you actually bent down and said hello, however, she was the biggest suck (and the biggest mooch) in the world. She loved babies and would watch over friends' children.

Caveat: You'll find that 99% of dogs are like that if

a) you're not inside the area they are, in their minds, sworn to protect (yard, house, parked car), and

b) you're confident & friendly - that "dogs can smell fear" thing is quite true.

A dog - any dog, any breed - has to be essentially feral or pretty badly abused to be genuinely hostile. Just like people.

Did this a month before heading to Paris for a week, to get one of the "hot" restaurants. And it worked!

One of the highlights of my trip to Paris took place in Rochester!