BLACK VELVET. I know this may generate a storm of "cat-hater" invective directed at me, but frankly, I don�t care: My name is Tom Schaller, and I�m a Dog Person.
My wife and I have a gorgeous, 90-pound black lab named Max. He was rescued by the Silver Spring�s (MD) Lab Rescue after being found roaming the streets in Delaware. He was thin, sickly and had a horrible cough. We adopted him four years ago, on February 17, 2003. The lab rescue folks estimated his age at one year, so that means Max turned five on Saturday. He now has a coat that shines like, well, velvet.
"Velvet" also happens to be the name of the black lab stranded on Oregon�s Mt. Hood with the three climbers who were finally rescued yesterday. One of the rescue team members asserts that, by laying across the cold climbers, Velvet probably saved the climbers' lives. No cat is ever going to do that. But I firmly believe that, were he in the same situation, Max would act as bravely as Velvet.
My name is Tom Schaller, and I�m a Dog Person.
--Tom Schaller
