Just One Big Happy Family Riding To The Vet's Office In Her SUV

The last couple of weeks before Claudia's annual trip back to Germany to visit her parents are always kind of hectic. She usually gets me to deliver some of her antique restoration work to her customers in Dania near Fort Lauderdale, pick up some checks, make a deposit or two, and I have to promise to keep current on her telephone messages, telling people that she's out of the country and when she'll be back.

We've been divorced for sixteen years or better but are still best friends. A brother/sister relationship would probably best describe it. We have keys to one another's cars and houses but at the same time the people we might date don't feel it's a threat to any new relationship. Which brings us to the dogs.

They've known me since they were tiny puppies and they get all excited when they hear my truck turn onto their street. They obey Claudia and they obey me. I'm "Daddy" in their lives. This was the day when they were going to the vet for a check-up and their shots. They get all hyper and excited in the waiting room with strange dogs all over the place, plus all the cats in cat carriers.

The dogs weigh 65 and 85 pounds and there's no way Claudia could handle both of them herself if they decided to get rambunctious, so that's where I come in. They both behaved nicely, with each of us holding one dog on a leash. The vet said they were both healthy, gave them their shots, and then we headed back to her house.