Paulie the Puppy

There is a reason I love being Dad. And for all the complaining and bellyaching I do about the kids in this blog, some might not realize how much I enjoy these kids. And every so often, even I need to be reminded.
I got one such reminder today. The Clan O'Rourke were out on the town taking care of some errands. The most important of which was dropping off the registration papers and obligitory accompanying check at Corpus Christi so that Tiernan is all registered for school come September. This will be his offical begining of school. Big stuff.
After the school we had to walk down to the post office for stamps and to mail some bills. Luckily for me I ran out of stamps a few days before the postal rate hike to 41 cents goes into effect. I usually end up with a bunch of stamps that need addition postage to be worth anything.
So, we are walking up the Boulevard, and what is walking the other way, but the cutest little Boxer puppy and his owner. Once Reagan sees the puppy she gets so excited she starts beeping like a car alarm. "Pup-eeeeeeee! Pup-eeee! Pup-eeeeee! EEEEEEE!" She is smiling that 10,000 watt grin and screaming "Pup-eeee!
The dog takes note of this and his ears shoot straight up, dog's owner takes note of this, the old lady with the walker and hearing aid three blocks away takes note of this, everyone hears the little girl with the grin.
So the puppy walks over to the kids and starts licking Reagan's face and she is just loving this all giggles and belly laughs. Tiernan asks what the dog's name is and we found out his name is Paulie. Tiernan says, "Hi Paulie." and the dog moves over and gives him a big ole kiss on the face. More laughter and happiness.
After a few moments of bliss, its is time to move on. Paulie leaves and we go to the post office. But for a few minutes everybody was happy. The kids were happy, Paulie was happy, I was happy, Paulie's owner was happy, all because a puppy played nice with some kids.
I love this job.