Molly And Pops

My father passed away six years ago today. It was later in his life that me and my father established more common ground than we ever did when I was a teenager. One of those pieces of common ground was our love of dogs. I have been around dogs since the day I was born and even in old family photos and videos there is always a dog present. A lot of there names have been lost to memory, but they were still a very large part of my upbringing and maybe even a bigger part of the family. Pops could be friends with any dog and within minutes would have it doing stupid pet tricks that would have made him a star on David Letterman and an overnight sensation. There is one exception to every rule and unfortunately, Molly was that exception. It wasn't for lack of effort on Pops behalf but Molly was bound and determined she was not going to have anything to do with him. We had a cookout at my house one afternoon and Pops spent the better half of three hours out there at Molly's dog lot trying to make friends with her while the rest of us ate hot dogs and hamburgers and played backyard football. Molly's lot had a platform that the pen stood on and Pops would sit on one side, Molly would move to the other. Molly would woof and snarl and Pops would just look at her, holding out the slimmest of hopes that they could be friends but it wasn't meant to be. They would change sides of the platform but it was the same reaction and the same result. Pops couldn't understand why and the rest of the family really couldn't either but Molly has only been loyal to two people in her life, and that is me and Kathy. I miss Pops dearly and his dogs have slowly started passing away one by one. Whenever I see the movie All Dogs Go To Heaven I think of my father because I am sure they are all following him around in heaven, fetching his hat, singing Happy Birthday in an off key howl, and taking long walks and naps with him.