Riley

For those of you who don't know, this is Riley, my 7-year-old brown dog. MacTroll and I adopted him from the D.C. shelter when he was 6 months old. His prior owners had been arrested and incarcerated on drug charges. 

We're guessing Riley spent most of his puppy days tied up somewhere, because to this day, you can't put a leash on him and attach him to something, other than your hand, without a manic freak out. 

Riley is an awesome dog. He's good with kids, cats and adults. He listens pretty well and loves to take long walks. And he's very protective of X-man, who he usually treats as an annoyance (Riley is the typical first child), but he guards the kid from possible harm with great tenacity and loyalty. He seems to understand even annoying "puppies" are part of the pack.

Riley loves to swim, take walks, chew on sticks, wrestle and cuddle. He likes to sleep curled up to the back of my legs or get spooned by the MacTroll. He has his own chair in MacTroll's office and his own couch in the living room. He even has his own seat in my car. 

I always loved dogs. I come from a family of dog people. But Riley is full of all kinds of extra bonuses that I wouldn't normally think of when I think of pet ownership. Riley scares away annoying sales people when they ring the doorbell. Riley herds the cats when they're allowed in the backyard while I'm gardening, so none of them slip outside the fence. And best of all, Riley doubles as a vacuum for days (like today) when the box of Cheerios falls over and I lose a bunch on the floor. 

Seriously, crackers, cheese, carrot sticks, almost anything (he doesn't like bananas or Jello) that X-man, MacTroll or I lose to the floor, Riley is there to scoop up. He doesn't beg for it either. He just sits quietly next to the table, and after all of the dishes are gone, he does a quick sniff and then eats his regular dog food. I'm not kidding... he doesn't fill up on his own food until he's sure his vacuum duty is done. 

Sure, he doesn't like to fetch. He's suspicious of other younger, larger, male dogs. He has an addiction to countersurfing when he's angry at us for taking X-man to school without letting him tag along, and he does get overexcited for company and bark them into the house.

But man, I wouldn't trade him for anything. He's awesome.