Pami - Thanks so much for your kind words. I hope you had a wonderful Holiday and hope we can chat someday soon.
db7 - you are joking...right?
What humans determine to be love can be considered a 'survival of the species' response (mothers protect their young out of the emotion of love and pack members protect each other out of a kind of love), but it does not diminish the reality of the emotion. It exists for many creatures of this earth and humans benefit from it greatly in our relationship with our dogs.
If you see Doug or I with any of our animals there would be no doubt in your mind of the reality of love in our relationships as I am sure you feel with your dog.
I am sure that I have been hoaxed into responding to this posting - but I couldn't ignore it - sorry.