I just received my copy of Real Simple in the mail today. Actually I received two copies, but that’s neither here nor there. I love that they provide little tidbit of seemingly trivial facts at the beginning. The amount of flowers used each year in the Rose parade, or how much money the Tooth Fairy now leaves under the pillow. This month they included one interesting “fact.” According to an upcoming book, called The Book of Times, by Lesley Alderman, the amount of time that the average person spends with their pet is a whopping 40 MINS. FORTY MINUTES!!? This is mind boggling to me since I spend most of my days working from home and my dogs are always at my side. Even when I go out to run errands they hop in the car with me just to get the chance to go for a drive and stick their head out of the window. I sometimes say, “oh its the breed…Ridgebacks tend to be needy dogs.” Which they are, there is no doubt about that. Yet, I certainly couldn’t fathom the idea of owning pets and spending little to no time with them. My dogs enrich my life in so many ways (as do my two crazy cats, but that’s a whole other kettle of fish). They force me to stop what I am doing, take breaks, go for walks. Every day, like clockwork, if I have been sitting at the computer too long, Merle will come put his nose under my hand (which is usually resting on the mouse), and he will nudge me. One day he nudged me so hard the mouse when flying and broke into several pieces. The point is, dogs know when its time to stop. Time to stop work and start snuggling. Hmm..I just wish more pet owners realized this.
The Stubborn Hound 
yes, unfortunately, you cannot rely on cats to provide the same judgment – they pounce on your books and pens when you most need to work and ignore you if you want to cuddle…