What a wonderful story, JudyM!

My husband wears leg braces and while he is active, he wouldn't stand a chance if a large dog jumped up on him, even in a playful greeting.

As a child his family has enjoyed a small poodle, but he was not a large dog person.

However, our last dog was a fairly large dog. My ex had bought her for my son, perhaps for his 8th birthday. (He's 31 now, so the years somewhat dim my memory as to exactly what birthday it was. All I know for sure is that he and I were divorced, and Steve and I had met and were married. So the that age is about right.)

My ex and I had joint custody of the kids, but when I learned about the dog, he promised me that Steve and I would never to care for the dog, which was a golden retriever/hound mix of some sort.

Long story short, within a year my ex had cancer and was in and out of hospitals and Steve and I had full custody of the kids - and the dog. When my ex died, friends and family told us we should get rid of the dog. But with two young kids who had just lost their father - I couldn't bring myself to take the dog from their lives as well.

So "Lucky" moved in with us full time, and for awhile, had to live in the lower level of the house, until we trained her not to jump on people. She was so smart and so intuitive - just the best dog.

As my son grew and no longer had time for a dog, she became my constant companion. She went to work with me, rode in the car on errands -- of course she loved going to the bank because the tellers gave her dog bones.

When she died it was if I'd lost a child. But I don't want to have to go through training a new dog. So for now, we are a dogless family.