Long before we had any cats, we had Labrador Retrievers. This brief history covers every dog we’ve had starting with my wife and moving forward to today. It will be written in several chapters.

Rhett Butler, 1979 — 1995

Rhett was my wife’s first dog, back before my wife had even met me. Rhett was given to my wife by her sister in Pennsylvania, who was a Lab breeder. Rhett was eight weeks old when he came to live with my wife. He was meant to be her companion so that she wouldn’t be alone in the small house she was renting up in Kennesaw, Ga. Rhett got his name because my wife wanted her northern dog to have a southern name, so she chose to name him after a character from “Gone With the Wind.”

Little did my future wife realize that her Rhett would be something of a canine character and charmer, always finding creative ways to get into trouble. As a charmer Rhett knew how to get the attention of passers-by when my wife left Rhett in her car while she ran short errands. She’d come back out to find a small crowd around the car, oohing and ahhing at Rhett while he would flash his eyes at the onlookers. There was one time she left groceries in the car with Rhett which included a dozen eggs. Rhett was miffed at being left in the car, so he opened the carton of eggs and hid them, one by one, around the inside of the car. That was Rhett demonstrating the capabilities of Lab soft mouth; he didn’t crack a single egg. Needless to say when my wife came back out there was a small crowd around the car, laughing at Rhett’s antics with the eggs. My wife didn’t think it was funny and had to collect them all back up before she could get in and drive off.

I met Rhett on my first date with my future wife. We’d gone back to her place and where just sitting and talking. Rhett was three at the time. Rhett decided he needed to make an impression on me, so he brought out all his toys, one by one, and placed them in a pile at my end of the sofa. By the time I noticed what Rhett had done, there was a pile of his toys next to my feet, with Rhett sitting nicely and smiling at me. Unfortunately for Rhett I didn’t appreciate this act of sharing at that time. Instead I felt a certain amount of irrational fear that this big yellow male Lab was ready to leap at me and tear out my throat. Besides I was more focused on the lovely woman than her dog. Regardless I left a disappointed Rhett that evening.

As we began to date, Rhett began to worm his way into the middle of the relationship. He was always with us when we were out together. We camped a lot around the Atlanta area, especially the Chattahoochee area. In one memorable camping expedition with another couple, that couple decided to go out alone in their own tent. We were going to do the same except that evening the area was hit with sizable thunderstorms that drove us back into the back of a truck the second couple drove up in. That truck had a little camper over the bed, and that’s where we all spent the night; Rhett and the two of us. Rhett decided to sleep up in the forward extension over the truck’s cab, while we spent the night in the camper itself. Early the next morning the couple came back soaked, while we were reasonable dry and out of the camper.

Rhett would also be left with me at my apartment when my future wife needed to go out of town. My apartment had a long walk-in closet, that immediately became Rhett’s apartment-within-the-apartment the moment he laid eyes on it. Rhett would go into the closet, circle one or twice, then come back to the entrance and lie down looking out. It was a nice place to have an apartment, as the complex was surrounded by green spaces perfect for long walks. And as it turned out, the company I worked at at the time was just up the road from where I lived, so on the weekends when I need to do a little work, Rhett and I would walk up to my office together.

And then there were the taco runs Rhett and I would make together. At night, when I didn’t want to cook, if Rhett was staying with me we’d both pile into my Honda and drive up to a local Taco Bell and pick up tacos to go. Rhett loved his green tacos. We’d pick up our tacos via the drive through and then head home to eat them. I had to be careful to break Rhett’s tacos up into small pieces or else he’d scarf them up in one gulp, then proceed to barf them back up again. And he always choose to barf on the apartment’s carpeting.

This kept up through our marriage and honeymoon. Rhett was Best Lab at the ceremony, while he traveled with us and stayed with us at a house on the Outer Banks on our honeymoon. More than once I’d go to sleep with my new wife in my arms, only to wake up in the morning with a yellow Lab between us, licking me awake  to feed him.

When we all moved from Georgia to Florida Rhett was the dog to go out with us on walks together, which is how I began a serious walking relationship with every Lab that’s ever lived with us.

And as it turned out, as each of our two daughters were born, Rhett was there to help look after them. He helped both daughters learn to walk. They both learned to climb to there feet by first crawling over to Rhett, then crawling on top to play. Then Rhett would slowly stand and the girls would slide down on either side, still holding onto his back. Then he’d start to slowly walk while the girls would begin to move their feet to keep up. At no time did Rhett ever walk or run from the girls so that they fell. It was as if he knew instinctively what to do, and was somehow silently communicating with the girls what they should do.

Rhett lived to be sixteen years and three days. On his last birthday he ate a birthday cake we’d gotten him at a local grocery. We figured at that point he’d earned the right to eat anything he wanted. He left us three days after that.

Rhett was the perfect yellow lab, full of playfulness and sweetness and loyalty until the very last.

Katie Scarlett O’Hara — Katie, 1986 — 2000

Katie got her name to match with Rhett’s. We continued with the ‘Gone With the Wind’ conceit that my wife had started with Rhett. Katie was a beautiful black female Lab, again from her sister living in Pennsylvania. She was born late 1985 and was flown down to us when she was eight weeks old in January 1986. Katie was to be my first ‘official’ dog, as Rhett was ‘officially’ my wife’s.

Rhett wasn’t particularly keen on meeting Katie for the first time. I sat in the front passenger seat holding Katie while Rhett was in the back seat. He spent the entire time leaning over the back of the front seat growling at little Katie. He’d been an only dog in the family up to this point, and wasn’t about to concede his special place to any other dog. Rhett was now seven and considered a senior dog, which is one reason we decided to get him a companion. My wife and I both worked and left Rhett at home for long periods, which meant he got to sleep and lie about a bit too much. I would walk him every day, but he was slowly gaining weight and the vet was concerned he wasn’t getting enough exercise to keep him reasonably healthy. Thus the companion.

We were careful to keep Katie in an extra large special create I built out of two-by-fours and chicken wire, one quite large enough for her to walk about, have a nice spot to rest, and spots to drink and if necessary poop and pee. When we got home we’d let her out and allow the two to begin to mix together under our watchful eye. At the prime age of 12 weeks I knew that Katie had worn down Rhett when, while we were eating supper one night, Rhett let out a huge toe sigh. We both looked over and saw puppy Katie sprawled on top of Rhett’s head fast asleep. The only sound that came out of Rhett was that sigh, and  Rhett allowed Katie to finish her nap on his head. From that point forward Rhett allowed Katie to sleep with him and to play with him. Play was mostly Katie nibbling his ears and tail, and running all around, under and over him. Katie grew quickly as all dogs are wont to do. By the time she was six months old I had two dogs with me on walks, and that’s the way it’s mostly been ever since.

Katie was very maternal with our daughters, letting them touch her and dress her up when the daughters got old enough to play dress-up. Katie was also my guardian Lab, always moving to my front if we encountered what she determined was a dangerous person and/or situation. While Rhett was undoubtedly sweet and loyal, Katie raised that up a few notches. She was always near me when I was home, gently nuzzling the palm of my hand. An example of Katie’s protectiveness toward me was when I was visiting my mother-in-law up in Ocala when she was still living.

My mother-in-law was living in a retirement community that had just been carved out of the Ocala undeveloped areas. While we were all there Katie needed to go do her business, so we walked down the street my mother-in-law was living on, that dead-ended into woods. As we made our way back into the edge of the forest a rather grumpy old man (this was the 1980s, so I was still young enough to call old people, old people) came out yelling that he didn’t want any dogs near his property. Problem was his property was on the side of the developed community while we were across the road in the woods. Katie immediately placed herself between me and him and began to growl loud enough to warn off the old man. The old man stopped, looked at Katie, decided not to yell anymore, and went back inside. Katie then went on her way into the forest to do her business. From that moment I realized that Katie would always defend me if she were with me and she determined there was a problem. I had to be careful not to provoke a situation like that in the future, or Katie might have gotten hurt over me.

It was a unique set of circumstances that built a tight bond between Katie and I that has not quite been repeated since. It started the day we picked up puppy Katie at the airport, and I held her in my lap, wrapped in a big warm blanket on the ride home. I “protected” her from growling Rhett in the back seat. Later, while she was still a puppy, she hurt her back paw/leg so that she limped. Every day, twice/day, I would gently lift her up onto the kitchen cabinet and gently put her leg in a coffee cup of warm water and Epsom salts, and hold her until the solution cooled a bit, then wash off the leg, and then put her back down on the floor. She quickly healed, and always responded to our therapy time by coming up to me for a session.

Katie lived another five years after Rhett. When she finally left me I cried just about the entire day. If Katie taught me anything, it’s that real canine love towards their person is pure, boundless, and unconditional. It’s not an exaggeration to say that having Rhett and Katie, especially Katie, during the formative years of my marriage and family life with the two girls helped shape my outlook in many positive ways toward marriage and fatherhood.