As stories go, this one is sad but beautiful. One of the great pleasures of recent years has been watching the interaction of our dog, Charlie, with our neighbor, Aunt Mary. Now in her early 90s, Aunt Mary recently suffered a stroke and the outlook is not good.

Every day when I take Charlie for a walk now he pulls me over to Aunt Mary's house and it's all I can do to restrain him from pulling me up the driveway to her back door, where she would greet him with a big smile. She would put the "legs" down on her recliner and Charlie would jump up into her lap and look directly at her face while she caressed him under his chin and around his ears. He was in heaven and so was she.

Then Charlie would shift his position so that he sat between her legs with his back to her. With her eyes closed and a big smile on her face, Aunt Mary would rub his back — and was often heard to murmur that she "had a little white dog" when she was a girl.

It was beautiful watching the two of them giving each other love so unselfishly. It's a sight we will never forget –nor will we forget Aunt Mary.

Beau Weisman, Editor