I have a chocolate Labrador Retriever named "Pattymint Pepper" (that's how I used to mispronounce the name of the candy when I was little). We call her "Patty" for short. She's very large and clumsy, and weighs about 80 pounds dry. She's a reddish brown kind of chocolate lab, and she sheds terribly in the summer. She sits still for about 30 seconds for me to brush her, then she either tries stealing the brush or she puts her nasty drooly mouth all over me. She doesn't bite or anything, she just opens her mouth and wipes slobber all over the place to get me to quit brushing her. Smart dog...

She often sneaks into the garage when I am filling her dish so she can look for anything interesting that she is not supposed to have, like the fuzzy loufa we use to wash cars with, gardening gloves, or anything interesting enough to eat, whether it is edible or not. I'll admit, if I were a dog, I would be interested in the fuzzy car loufa myself. I usually chase her around the yard until I get tired, then I try to trick her with a milkbone to get whatever she isn't supposed to have. Sometimes I give up because she is so persistent in keeping her treasure.

Patty loves to play. We have to buy ultra tough toys that she can't chew up into little bits and pieces. Usually, if we find a good toy that she can't demolish, we buy an extra. She loves the water and will dive right in with no reserve whatsoever. She also gets excited and runs into people at full force. Imagine 80 pounds of chocolate dog running towards you with no indication that she is going to stop.

She's basically like the dog off of "Marley and Me".

When I came home from work today, I went to refill her water bowl. I decided that since it was so hot outside, I would let her in the house and give her a popsicle. I tried to get her to come up the stairs, but she stayed in the garage. I figured it was because she usually isn't allowed in the house. When I went back downstairs, she had grabbed a blue rubber ball that was sitting on the sink and she had that "OH NO! I'm in trouble" look on her face because she thought she had something important. Now, this was just some sort of advertising doo-dad that my dad brought home from work. He has access to hundreds of them, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to let Patty have the ball. I suppose she was so shocked that I didn't start yelling and chasing her that she had one of her hyper fits and started running all over the place. At one point, she just stopped right in front of me and peed in the floor. I tried giving her the popsicle, but she wouldn't eat it. She grabbed the ball and ran outside. I suppose she thought that the popsicle was a distraction so I could get the ball back. At one point, she dropped the ball and it rolled to the other side of the fence where she couldn't get it. I offered the popsicle to her again, and she almost ate the entire thing in one bite because she was so worried I would take her ball. Silly.

Anyways, I love my dog, even though she's sometimes a dummy.