So kewl to read about the pets! I have 2 dogs, 2 cats, 1 elderly guinea pig, and 3 aquariums full of fish.

My dog, Riker, a rottweiler, is my buddy, stays in the room with me most of the time. If I don't feel well,he keeps especially close.

Riker is a registered Therapy Dog with Therapy Dogs Inc. He is retired because of a neck injury, he defended me from a boxer that broke into our yard and he possibly herniated a cervical disc.

I have a heart problem, a irregular heartbeat that can drive me nuts from time to time. Add to that a newly discovered blockage in a coronary artery, and you can see that my heart concerns me . Riker seems to know when I am feeling down, or especially tired, and he starts to clown around, for my benefit.

He is no longer a young dog, but thinks that entertaining me is worth a few sore muscles, so he chases his big ball around the yard, barking for me to watch him. If I ignore him, he will nose that big ball right up to me and bark as if to say "C'mon,we gotta play now!"

He loves to bring the paper in every morning, but teases me sometimes, he looks around to see if anyone is watching, runs out to the paper, and jumps on it with his front feet. This makes the paper slide down the sidewalk, like a skateboard! I laugh so hard, I cannot scold him! Oh well, I didn't need to read the first 5 pages anyway, they are worn away.

Lately, he has taken to leaning on me when I am at my PC,all 98 lbs of him. I need a chair with locking wheels, he pushes me around! Once he satisfies himself that I am Ok, he lays beside me and sleeps. Sometimes he rises from sleep and sniffs me up and down, I wonder if he can tell when I have heart trouble.