It's National Puppy Day!

Yes, today is National Puppy Day.I've always been a cat person, but I've also always been a dog person. I grew up with both, and loved both types of pets. Of course, I had a Siberian Husky, and they are quite independent and have a bit of a cat streak in them. They aren't very good at listening, though they understand what you're saying to them, and they want love on their own terms.Being a woman in my 20s living alone in South Florida, I was not going to get a dog. Too much commitment. One of the great things about cats is that you can leave them alone a day or so if you leave out enough food and water - and it's easy to have someone stop by your house once a day to scoop the litter box and feed them if you are away longer. You can be more spontaneous when you have a cat.Dogs are much more loving and friendly, but they require a real commitment that I simply wasn't ready to give. Now that I'm a so-called adult, with a husband and children and a mortgage, I don't get to go off on a moment's notice anyway, so what's a dog to add to it?Besides, we have the best of both worlds, sharing our Lumi girl with my mother-in-law, so we only have partial custody and when she becomes just a little too Lumi, it's about the time for her to go back to my mother-in-law's and we end up just missing her once she's gone.Dogs are awesome, and when my friend Matt Haze asked for puppy photos on his Facebook profile in honor of National Puppy Day, I knew I had to steal the idea, and my friends did not disappoint.You can't go wrong looking at photos of puppies (or kittens, really, I mean, I do love a good kitten photo and I miss my kitties a lot.But happy National Puppy Day! Give that dog of yours a belly rub from me.Photo by me of Lumi in November 2012.