When the daughter’s pet dog passed on after many years of friendship, she became very sad and teared up. Hoping to ease her pain at the passing of her good friend, I said, “Honey, life is a succession of good dogs!”
Not too much longer, the daughter started pestering for a new dog. After an extended search, we were presented with a choice between two Cocker Spaniel puppies. One was black, the other was gold. As you might imagine, the wife wanted the black one, while the daughter wanted the gold one.
Hoping to avoid having two puppies underfoot, I suggested a compromise. “Why don’t we take the black one home and call her Goldie?”
It worked, and we had many good years of friendship with Goldie before she, too, passed on.
But the compromise of that moment did not address the question of the day, which is,
“Where should the family go to find its next good pet?”
