Good ol’ Velvet. Last month, her humans took the black lab-cross with them as they climbed Mt. Hood. This is the same Mt. Hood that claimed the lives of three climbers just weeks before. Undeterred, Velvet’s humans thumbed their collective noses at recent

history and made the wintry trek. The smartest thing they did was to bring along Velvet . Sure, those GPS’s they rented helped out, but it was good ol’ Velvet who saved their bacon. On a night that the climbers described as “hellacious”, the lab lay over their bodies and kept them warm. The next day, as they were brought down the mountain by rescuers, Velvet humbly accepted the mantle of “heroine”.Anyone who has a dog knows that Velvet’s actions were not strictly altruistic. There’s definitely a symbiotic relationship between pets and humans, and I suspect that ol’ Velvet was gettin’ some for herself. Not to denigrate Velvet; I just know from my own dogs. My own spoiled dogs. They have slept on our bed since day 3 of their arrivals (I fought –and lost- the battle for crate-training after those first 2 days), and no amount of kicking (on my part) will dislodge them. It’s worse right after they’ve been groomed/shaved. You would think they were on top of Mt. Washington in gale-force winds, instead of in a well-heated house, they way they shiver and carry on. They want me to believe they’re curling up near me for my protection. I know better.

I had an acquaintance who had a somewhat disturbing relationship with her 100-pound German Shepherd. A few weeks after her husband died, “Wanda” began encouraging the dog to sleep on the bed (this was after years of sleeping on a rug in the living room). We can all picture the large light bulb that went off in this dog’s head. At first he slept curled up at the foot of the bed; then he began going vertical, inching over a little bit more every night. Pretty soon it became a race to see who could lay claim to the bed first, because if Wanda (who weighed only 95 lbs.) came to bed after the dog, it was nearly impossible to nudge him over. Then came the fateful night when she tried to move him, and he snarled at her. At that point she began sleeping on the living room couch.

So while it doesn’t surprise me that Velvet probably saved her humans’ lives, I’m sure there was an ulterior motive. And I think we’re all okay with that.