Well last night while at work as I was walking my floors ,I thought of my dog ; Marmaduke . My Mother got her for us kids , at the time my Dad was in the Navy and was doing a tour of duty in Vietnam . This was back in 1969 ; I was thirteen then .
    My brothers and sister also me had the great idea of naming  her after the cartoon character in the daily paper ,hence the name " Marmaduke " . I guess I may as well get on with what I thought about .
   The first night we had this beautiful  brown ,tan with black strips German Shepperd collie mix pup home I couldn't sleep . So my mother allowed to lay on the floor in the living room with her . We were watching The Johnny Carson Show , I believe Tiny Tim  was a guest that night ,shoot he was a frequent guest back then .
   My Mother noticed that neither the dog or I want to be the first to fall asleep . We would lay there and our eye lids would drop then they pop open again . This went on all the way through the whole show till finally one of us lost the battle. To this day its unclear who won . But that isn't what matters . A thirteen year old boy  meet his best Friend .
    Some to hang  out with, some one he could talk to and not get that judge mental stare from . I just knew she understood every thing I said . My Mom always said that if she could talk oh the stories she could tell about me. She was there for me at a time in my life I really needed my Father around . It was not his fault though , he had made a commitment to our country in a time that he did not get the respect he was due from the public. So in conclusion it was not easy time for any one who had lived in this kind of situation but we found our ways to cope and life goes on . The thing that matters is a boy found a life long friend that every time he thinks of today brings a smile to his face , realizes it wasn't that bad . We all made it through it and seen more happy times, made more memories to think of fondly .