Love comes in many sizes.Luckily for most of us, we find something, in just our size, to love and be loved by. Having ended a 37 years marriage, I didn't expect to fall in love again...ever. In reality it took 4 days..*VBS*. I went to a 4th of July picnic with a long time quilter friend. It was at her sister's house on the lake. I had been there before, but what was new is that Abby, the golden retriever had puppies that were just 2 months old that July. And there was one puppy left. A reject. Second largest in the litter, he had been rejected. A litter mate(who had been pre-purchased and named) died. Betty thought this puppy would "work" for the new to be owners. Wrong. If they couldn't have the puppy they picked, they wanted their money back. And so Dakota was still with his mom that 4th of July. Born on May 4rd, he was exactly 2 months old, and already a big, big puppy! I didn't intent to get a puppy 4 days after my DH left the marriage, the job, the family and the community. But I went home with Dakota riding shotgun in the front seat of my van. And filling the ENTIRE seat, I might add. The picture was taken several years ago, but it is the best picture I have of him, my Daks, at age 6 with grandson Nick, also age 6. The difference is that Daks weighed in at 120# and Nick at about 55#. As you can see, his size didn't not keep Nick from walking him(always with a grownup). Daks would walk so carefully, never tugging on the leash. He knew he was much bigger than the small boys who loved him. Grandson Brady, at 4 yrs, would feed Daks slices of salami from the snack tray. Crawling under the table to do so, and Daks always took them so carefully and never in a hurry. Scared us grown ups, but Daks knew...tiny hands and tiny fingers. He was such a people dog, I could say to him "show me what you've got" and he would drop it and let me look at it. In his life time he managed to catch 2 of the mice he was always seeking in the tall grass along the riveer. The first one he played with til it died of exhausion, and then he'd look at me, like I could fix it. The second one, he found and really wanted to take back to the car. I wasn't having any of that, so I sat down by the side of the road and waited while he had his catch and release game for awhile. Eventually he just laid there and watched the mouse run into taller grass. Then he got up and looked at me as if to say, "let's go home, I'm done now". I lost him in March of 2004, to cancer. But I know he's waiting for me at the rainbow bridge, this guy I loved the second time around...*S*