So there we were, driving along, my folks and I. We’d just left the nursing home where my Grandma is, and my brother and his family had left for home in the far and frigid north as well. You know it’s always hard when family visits end. It’s sad to say goodbye, and we were driving along in need of something cheerful.

I was watching a wall as we passed it, a light brown block and stucco wall, seven or eight feet high, which separated the road from the backs of a row of homes. Suddenly there he was, his head and shoulders above the wall, his paws resting on it as though it were the most natural thing. Dogs always peer over the tops of eight-foot walls. And he was just looking around casually, his big black head turning side to side, watching the cars. I believe he was a Rottweiler.

He must have been standing on something. And the best thing that came to mind at that moment was … two or three other dogs. Sometimes, you just have to see what’s on the other side of your problems, and it helps to have friends.