Man's best friend

Who is your best friend? If you have a dog, most likely you immediately thought of him/her, b/c the unconditional love we get from a pooch surpasses any we get from humans. I heard a joke the other day, saying you know who loves you most when you put your wife and your dog in the trunk of a car. Guess who's happy to see you when you open the trunk! My Baggins isn't the most affectionate dog in the world, but let me start crying and he comes from wherever he is in the house to comfort me by licking my face, and he's not there to fix me, he's just there to say, "I care." There are 65 million dogs in the US, and it costs on average of $4, 476 to raise one to 12 years old, which is the average life span of a dog today, as opposed to 7 years in 1930. Dogs generally sleep 14 hours/day, and there are 8 1/2 daily dog attacks on mailmen, occuring most often in Indiana! Labrador retrievers are the most popular dog breed in the US, we all know someone who has one. The most intelligent dog breeds are: border collies, poodles, and german shepherds; the least intelligent breeds are bulldogs, basenjis, and afghan hounds (Barbie's dog.) The intelligence level of the ave. dog is equivalent to a 2 year old child's, and they can understand about 200 words. 70% of people believe their dogs would risk their life for them, and around 27% of Americans mention their dogs in their wills. There were 9 dogs on board the Titanic, and 3 survived as a result of their owners getting them on board a life raft. One lady, Elizabeth Rothschild, got her pup on the raft resulting in her husband's death! The relationship of man and dog is as old as man and dog. Baggins is asleep in his chair not even 5 feet from me, with his trusting little eyes closed and his belly rising and falling as he gets in his 14 daily hours. What would we do without them? jody