Marley & Me

Before the book Marley & Me came to fame, I had my own friend named Marley. She was a great gal. We met before or after the time I almost died, so maybe when I was 6? You’ll have to excuse me…my memory isn’t what it used to be.

I really liked Marley because she minded her own business and gave me my space. Walking side by side or sniffing one another’s butt was about as close as we ever got to playing. Marley and I were exercise buddies, which was a result of our mommies being exercise buddies. She taught me a lot.

We used to go walking almost everyday. On our walks, Marley was allowed to walk off her leash. Of course, as soon as I saw this, I knew it was something I wanted to be able to do too. Thankfully my mommy wanted to try it out too. I guess she had a problem with stopping every two feet for me to smell something. I learned how to walk off the leash, and how to stop and wait to be prompted to cross the street by watching Marley. That’s not to say I didn’t give mommy a few scares running across the street after a squirrel or two. I still do walk off my leash, and I know to stop before crossing the street, only now that I’m deaf, mommy has to hold my collar until I get to the other side.

Marley also taught me how to swim. I don’t mean literally how to swim. I think I was born knowing the doggy paddle. Before Marley and I met, I would only get in the water to chase a stick. Marley showed me how to swim for leisure. Since our walks often brought us to Lake Ontario, our mommies would often stop to let us take a dip and chase a few sticks. Sometimes though, Marley would just go swimming out in the lake for pleasure, no sticks required. When Marley’s mommy would go in for a swim, she would challenge Marley to a race. This involved the two of them swimming a ways from shore, then turning around and racing back. Lo and behold, once, my mommy and I did a similar race. I let mommy win.

Marley and I would also go cross-country skiing. The longest distance I ever went with her was six miles on the Tug Hill Plateau. I’m pretty sure that’s when the photo of us was taken. As you can see we were pretty pooped. I miss Marley a lot. She was probably my best girlfriend. She passed away a few years ago. She’s the kind of dog who could probably have written a blog herself. She lived a very full and interesting life, undoubtedly better than some people. That’s probably why she was so cool.