I got teased yesterday that I have fallen into a rut a bit (how many times can a guy talk about the weather & his dog?), so today I am going to talk about something a little more special … and my dog.

Ok, so Auggie has this way of sitting that is funny to me.  He just plops his butt on the ground and stares at me.  I call it the “confused dog” look.  Like, I can leave the room, and when I come back he is still sitting there staring at me.  It looks like this:

Now that I lost you  in your “awwww, he’s cute” moment … let me tell you what it really reminds me of.  It reminds me of the sticker on the back of my car.

It looks pretty close, doesn’t it?  It has that same sit position.  Same front legs in front.  Same long tail, same bent ears.  The only difference is that the sticker shows the dog with a smile, and Auggie … well … Auggie’s just confused.

But to be honest, the sticker and the sit position brings up a completely different thought.  I got the sticker as a gift from my mom the week before I brought Auggie home.  Up to that point, I had a couple pictures of him, but nothing to really suggest what he would look like now, and I am betting my mom didn’t know either.  But here we are, a near perfect reflection of the pup. 

Whenever I go to my car, I see this sticker — and I think of my mom.

Whenever I see the Auggie sit like that, I think of that sticker — and I think of my mom.

And I can hear the wise cracks now … “So, you compare your mother to a dog?”  But in its own way, it is how I keep her in my mind.

Which is important today because it’s her Birthday today.

Happy Birthday Mom down there where its warm and sunny and not at all stuck on a cruise ship — thinking about you.