Marley & Me

Marley & Me
by John Grogan

Definitely a pick me upper! Life can still be good, with a loyal, always-cheerful, fun-loving four-legged friend.

I was reading Marley but my mind kept going back to the summer when I spent many lazy evening hours walking a 75-lb labrador mix named Brownie and two yapping Shih Tzus, Snowy and Sweety. Brownie was a mutt but has prominent retriever features because one of her parents is a black labrador. She was a sweet-natured giant, trained extensively at an early age to assist people in wheelchairs. Being born and growing up in a Chinese metropolis, my reaction to a large dog was not so positive to begin with, but I still remember the amazement I felt when I saw her performing a series of tricks, apparently all standard tasks that she must master before graduating from dog training school. She can open doors, drag a wheelchair uphill (essential when the battery in the wheelchair fails), turn on and off light switches in hard-to-reach places, open refridgerator door, move canned foods from shelves and scatter them around on the flloor--OK she didn't learn this from school, only improvised as her silent protest when she was left home alone for prolonged periods of time, and many many more. She filled my idle summer with joy and new discovery about dogs, and what it means for them to be men's best friends. Although the Marleys of labs can be rambunctious, labs are usually very mellow dogs in general like Brownie. I'd like to get me a girl yellow lab someday.