Lady Dog was my first friend. Yeah, she had a terrifyingly ferocious bark when anyone arrived who didn’t live at my grandparents, but she’d welcome my little self under the kitchen table after dinners for snuggling. I can still remember the feel of her fur and the smell of her breath. I swear she adopted me in her heart and I wish I could still see her again. The memory of her is always intertwined with my grandfather who also had a ferocious bark yet very kind to me. Thinking of the two of them together is comforting.