I have always been a “dog” person.  In most ways on most days dogs are everything we human beings should be—excited to see our loved ones; always up for fun and play; forgiving; and great for just hanging out and being with our friends.  When I was about 9 or 10, we owned a cat for about 2 months, but our dog wasn’t a big fan and neither were my parents.  We found a neighbor who wanted the cat and never looked back.

I never had much interest in cats after that.  I’m an animal lover in general, so petting a neighbor’s cat and walking away was fine.  I just never had any real bonding experience with a cat—and frankly, their attitudes often reminded me too much of women.  Dogs were for guys.  Cats were for gals.

In the fall of 1998, Monkey found me.

I was a bachelor of 28.  Just me and my faithful bachelor dog, Bob (who will be 16 in July).  Bob and I had four years together at that point.  We had our routines and our styles down pat.  Everyone who knew me knew Bob.  We were that intertwined.  We were kind of like a tag team.  We were and still are the perfect buddies for each other.  But we were about to learn that there was room for more in our little gang.

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Fifteen minutes of fame.  Or shame.  It doesn’t seem to matter which anymore.  Our society’s constant worship of celebrities and fascination with the freak du jour has fueled the seemingly insatiable need to get noticed—to be “somebody”.  Never mind that the “somebody” you may be is a laughingstock, a pervert, a criminal, a blowhard, or an idiot.  Just be “somebody”.

Two recent examples demonstrate the depths to which those in need of attention will stoop:  namely the “balloon boy” family and the White House party crashers.  For me, I find it interesting that these two sets of absurd fame-seekers perpetrated their fiascos the same year that my 90-year-old grandmother passed away.  More on her in a moment.

Richard Heene and his wife—the Colorado family who fed the lecherous media the juicy hoax of a runaway experimental balloon with their young son supposedly trapped inside— (more)