He’s named after a writer, so the glasses he wears in this photo suit him well. Equal parts brain and brawn, the beauty of his red coat and golden eyes grabbed my attention in his photo on the lab rescue website. He had had a terrible leg injury that required surgery but was recovering well under the love and attention of his foster parents.
But we wondered: would he be able to walk and run? Could he get up and down our stairs?
Despite our concerns about his condition, we kept coming back to his photo on the website. And I fell in love before we even met him.
That was fall of 2019. Now, his home is our home. Affectionate, goofy, and relaxed, he makes us laugh every day. His gifts include falling asleep while looking at you, napping on his back with his legs in the air, and squeezing his loudest squeak toy during dinner. He runs in the yard and takes the stairs without a limp unless he overdoes it. Even though he’s strong enough to pull an ox-cart, he lets me walk him on a leash.
And when he turns those golden eyes on me, well, I’m tempted to give him whatever he wants.
Our boy is actually my fourth lab mix through the years. If I could line them all up, they would look like a crayon box: milk chocolate, pale yellow, midnight black, and rusty red. And of course they would all be friends. To me, there’s no better pet than a dog and no better dog than a lab.
February 20th is National Love Your Pet Day. The World Animal Foundation website notes these 2025 stats from the American Pet Products Association: 94 million U.S. households (71%) own a pet. Of those households, 68 million (51%) own a dog. Plus, pet ownership in general is on the rise, despite economic uncertainty.
None of this surprises me, though. I’ve been a pet owner all my adult life.
Not everyone love dogs, I know. Maybe you prefer cats, fish, birds, snakes and lizards, horses, or even chickens.
But here’s something I bet we can all agree on: our pets provide companionship and devotion, offer a listening ear, teach us patience, and help us relax. They improve our health, combat loneliness, and sometimes even offer protection. Even more so, they brighten our days and our lives.
If you are a pet owner, chances are you think every day is Love Your Pet Day. To me, pets are one of God’s good gifts to us. I’m so grateful for mine, I’m going to wake him up right now, follow him around the neighborhood, and give him a treat before he settles back down for another nap.
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