How much is that doggie in the window?
I had a dog when I was little. His name was Happy. I got him when I was 8. When I was 19 Happy died. He had cancer. We had to put him down. Eventually I want another doggie. I don't like little yippy dogs. But I don't like big giant dogs (can we say shovel?) either. Happy was a Shih-tzu ("Lion" in Chinese - see photos) and I would love to get another. They're smart, sweet, about 18-20 pounds and really cute. However, if you're not careful you'll end up with the yippy kind. Happy wasn't yippy, he was ... well ... friendly. He'd make friends with everyone. Sometimes we were afraid he'd make friends with a big scary dog and then Happy would be big scary dog's lunch. Happy didn't seem to mind, though. Lunch or not. Maybe we can get another dog like Happy - Shih-tzu's are supposedly "lap" dogs but I wouldn't let him BE a lap dog so my Shih-tzu may have been one of the few who would fetch, jump over fences (short ones), race me up and down the stairs, sleep on the air conditioning vent, bark at birds (and try to chase them), and ... my mom trained the dog to get her paper in the morning! The dog weighed probably 15 or 16 pounds and every morning he'd run out, go and get the paper, and bring it in. This became very useful when, for example, it was snowing and 3 below outside. The funny thing was that we got 2 papers - The Wichita Eagle and The Wall Street Journal. So the dog knew he had to get 2 papers. Well, sometimes, the Wall Street Journal would be late (and therefore not out there when Happy was 
out there looking for it) and all Happy knew was that he had to bring in 2 papers. He would go across the street and get the neighbor's paper! And then mom would have to sheepishly return it after giving the dog his treat for getting the paper. On Sunday's it was a hit or miss. The Sunday paper was so big that the dog couldn't get his little jaws around it so he would just grab an end and drag. If he grabbed the open end, then the paper made it in. If he grabbed the wrong end, the bag would come in, the paper would lay out on the drive. Good dog! I have to stop writing about dogs. Because I'm gonna want one.