How Dogs Enhance Our Lives

this post was requested by my friend Pat

They wag. They smile. They're warm and friendly, and fun to pet. They need you. You get outside more often, and get some exercise. It's humbling (you have to pick up poop). It's kind of a reminder that humans are only animals, too. They can be good with kids, and teach responsibility (a step up from maintaining plants). They can be guide dogs for the blind. They can be rescue dogs, for people lost on mountains, or trapped in fallen rubble. They can track criminals. They can detect drugs. They can provide comfort to people in hospitals. They have a superpower: super-smell, which can be used to find things. They can guard your property. They can bark at trespassers. They can attack enemies. They can be useful in war. And they can love you back, be good for the lonely, and a way to meet people at dog parks or on the street (a better way than smoking, I would say). They can sleep on your bed, and be trained to do things, like sit, stay, roll over, shake, heel, fetch, and even stand. They can be fun to watch, entertaining, goofy. Sometimes they lick your face. They have personalities. They can usually understand more than 100 words. They help the economy, for dogfood, pet toys, veterinary services, and dog-walkers/sitters/boarding. Pets are people, too, right dawg? Going to the dogs, doggone-it, isn't really such a bad thing. Dog is to God as devil is to lived. Hopefully I'm not writing doggerel. Dogs are cool, and that's some of God's dogma. Life's a bitch, and then you die. Woof!

aside:
The FCI (world canine organization) recognizes 339 breeds of dog.  Some are cute, some are ugly, some big, others small (called "toy" dogs), some are used for hunting, others for herding, while others (in asia) are used for food, themselves.  They have health problems, both physical and mental, like humans.  And I've read that some can smell disease (cancer?) through the skin of their owners.  The onion just joked about a dog waiting before eating his dead owner's face.  Some dogs will refuse food after the death of their owner until they die as well (dog suicide).  There's dog racing, and dogfighting.  'movies about dogs' is an interesting google search.   This, too.  There are smart dogs, and dumb dogs.   I've heard about a dog that watches tv.  There was a tv show about 'Dog' the bounty hunter (and Snoop Dogg is now Snoop Lion). (I haven't read my Cat Warren book about dogs yet).  We all have dogs in our mouths (k9's), lol.  

interesting bit o' science:
Are dogs descended from wolves?  "It turns out that today's dog breeds may not have evolved from the gray wolf, at least not the kind of gray wolf that exists today.  A study in the current issue of PLoS genetics suggests that, instead, dogs and gray wolves share a common ancestor in an extinct wolf lineage that lived thousands of years ago."