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“Come in, now,” I said, but Little Girl ignored me and continued her exploration of the backyard. Just about the time I was ready to stamp my foot and shout at her, she looked up and ran straight toward me. As she entered the house, our routine fell in place: she received a big towel rub to clean her paws and dry the fluff on her tummy. The ground was wet and a few leaves had stuck to her. She pranced around like a show dog, reminding me of an anonymous saying I once read: “A dog can express more with his tail in minutes than his owner can express with his tongue in hours.”

When someone asked me how old this loveable ball of fur I call Little Girl was, I pulled out a file with her medical expenses, vaccinations and grooming charges. I was reminded she had come to be my friend and companion in 2014. Since she was an adopted dog, I have no record of earlier than those. One thing is for sure, she is no spring chicken, but she still retains her sweet doggie personality.

There are a few more choice words I ran across, such as “The reason a dog has so many friends is he wags his tail instead of his tongue.” Dogs and cats can be wonderful, amusing and loving companions to humans of all ages. Mark Twain said this about dogs: If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. It is the principle difference between a dog and a man.” Twain came to this conclusion regarding how dogs and cats differ. “If animals could speak, the dog would be a blundering, outspoken fellow; but the cat would have the rare grace of never saying a word too much.” Would you care to guess who made the following statement? “The better I get to know men, the more I find myself loving dogs.” That observation was made by the former president of the French Republic, Charles de Gaulle.

Then there are the words of Emily Dickinson: “Dogs are better than human beings because they know but do not tell.”

Haven’t you and I and other pet lovers pondered whether our beloved dogs and cats would go to Heaven? Author Robert Louis Stevenson had no doubts. His opinion was that dogs would be there long before any of us. Humorist J. Billings said that a dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself.

Although I prefer dogs, I have friends and relatives who are cat lovers. They probably feel somewhat like Author Charles Dickens, who wrote “What greater gift than the love of a cat?”

I will end with another anonymous quote: “A dog is the only thing that can mend a hole in your broken heart.” My heart did not need mending when Little Girl joined me those few years ago, but she certainly warmed it.