You haven\u2019t experienced truly unconditional love until you\u2019ve been chosen by a dog.<\/p>\n
We have a dog named \u201cBacon\u201d.\u00a0 My wife and daughter found her at the pound, a wondrous place that offers loving animals to caring people.\u00a0 After bringing home this miniscule puppy, which nestled neatly within the palm of my hand, we soon entered naming negotiations\u2026<\/p>\n
My wife and middle daughter were advocating the name \u201cBlondie\u201d. \u00a0\u00a0After a single look at the little dog comfortably sleeping in my hand, I decided that since she so strongly resembled a piece of bacon, \u201cBacon<\/em><\/strong>\u201d would be more appropriate.\u00a0 My wife then made the mistake of calling a family vote.\u00a0 {A mistake, since I have no qualms about manipulating matters to suit myself. :)}.<\/p>\n With my wife, Suzanne, and our middle daughter, Dannielle, comfortably resting upon the laurels of a sure win, I took my son and youngest daughter aside, in order to explain the obscure construct of \u201cvoting<\/em>\u201d to them.<\/p>\n \u201cA vote,\u201d I explained, \u201cis a great thing.\u00a0 Everyone\u2019s opinion counts equally.\u00a0 It\u2019s nothing like normal, where your Mom makes the decisions and we all pretend to like it.\u201d<\/p>\n Both nodded sage agreement.<\/p>\n Having adeptly planted the seeds of discontent, I went on to explain a little about the nature of the particular vote we were so lucky to have, \u201cWe get to choose the name for our new dog!\u00a0 Your mom and sister want to name her Blondie<\/em>…\u201d\u00a0 I paused to let them grant this preposterous suggestion the scant consideration it was due.<\/p>\n They looked at me as if to ask, \u2018Is that not a fine name for a dog?<\/em>\u2019<\/p>\n I nodded slowly before continuing \u201c… which is a perfectly good name for a dog, after all many people have named their dogs \u2018Blondie<\/em>\u2019.\u201d\u00a0 They smiled, and nodded.\u00a0 This was true.<\/p>\n \u201cBut\u2026<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 Both immediately recognized the caveat they so often used to explain that which was self-evident to any reasonable person.\u00a0 With their full attention upon me, I went on \u201c…but since she is a unique dog, maybe she should have a unique<\/em> name.\u201d\u00a0 A pause, and a smile as I conjured the dog\u2019s image with words,\u00a0 \u201cShe looks just like a piece of fresh bacon, doesn\u2019t she?\u201d<\/p>\n Two nods of agreement.\u00a0 She did indeed look very much like a piece of fresh bacon – pristine white streaked with bits\u00a0of pinkish brown.<\/p>\n Content, I said no more and waited till my wife called \u201cthe vote<\/strong>.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n I remained silent as Suzanne smiled knowingly at our favorite middle daughter, before saying, \u201cWe\u2019re voting to name the dog.\u00a0 Everyone who thinks \u2018Blondie<\/em>\u2019 is a good name, raise your hand.\u201d\u00a0 Perfectly on cue two hands raised, Suzanne’s and Dannielle’s.<\/p>\n Into the wide eyed surprise of my wife, I quickly said, \u201cOr if you think \u2018Bacon<\/em>\u2019 is better, then wait.\u201d<\/p>\n Only two hands remained raised, and thus did our dog win her name \u2013 Bacon.<\/p>\n Bacon loves us all.\u00a0 Yet some, she loves more equally than others.<\/p>\n If you haven\u2019t been adopted by a dog, take yourself off to your nearest animal shelter and see if one might bark for you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" You haven\u2019t experienced truly unconditional love until you\u2019ve been chosen by a dog. We have a dog named \u201cBacon\u201d.\u00a0 My wife and daughter found her at the pound, a wondrous place that offers loving animals to caring people.\u00a0 After bringing home this miniscule puppy, which nestled neatly within the palm of my hand, we soon […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}