Amore and Dolce have always been our ‘go-everywhere’ dogs. Where we go, they go. To the store, into town, over to friends, the girls tag-along. And, it never fails, where they go, they attract attention. I mean, come on, two big Berners? Sittin’ side-by-side? Tails a-waggin? Loopy grins on their faces? A day doesn’t go by without Malcolm or I receiving some type of comment on the girls.
Take them to the store and immediately Dolce and Amore jump into the front seats as we exit the vehicle. Other store patrons chuckle over seeing our two dogs, respectfully sitting upright in the driver’s and passenger’s seats. 
“Beautiful dogs,” “Love your dogs,” “What kind of dogs are these,” “Can I pet them?” are words heard regularly, as we load our groceries into the car.
On occasion, we spy people discretely pulling out their phones to snap a quick pic of our prom queens in their limo. They always say it for someone else. Yeah, right.
Amore and Dolce soak up the attention. They paw and preen, even do the leaning thing against stranger’s legs as they are ooh’ed and ahh’ed over on our walks. In an instant, they are the Grand Marshals of the parade. All important. All expectant of the praise. Passing out doggy smiles and paw waves like they were throwing penny candy to the spectators.
A few weekends ago, Malcolm and I took the girls up the mountain to hike around in the Aspens. It was a truly beautiful day. The leaves had already initiated their pageantry of yellows, oranges, and reds as we headed up the trail. The sky was crystal blue. The air crisp with the scent of pine boughs and cones. Amore and Dolce were in canine heaven. New scents and a new trail were theirs for the taking. Along with more adoration from strangers.
I doubt we had gone more than twenty yards up the trail, when we were stopped by a group of tourists asking about the girls. “What kind of dogs are they?” “Can we take a picture with them?” We paused for the Kodak moment.
Another thirty yards and we were hailed by a family with young children. “Can I pet the doggie?” a brave little lass asked in a small voice. With nods of permission, she stepped forward to give Dolce a small caress on her head. Dolce, sweetheart that she is, laid down at the sneaker-clad feet of the little girl, rolling over for a belly rub. Giggles erupted from the child as Amore licked her face. Little ones are a favorite with our girls.
The next mile was broken up with no less than eleven groups of hikers all asking about our dogs, slowing down our parade up the hill.
In betw
een, Malcolm and I tried for our own photo-op of our dogs. I had visions of the perfect Christmas Card. The girls had visions of more dog worshiping. Of them. By others. Cuz they don’t get enough love at home. NOT!
Every time we stopped for a selfie, people would stop to pet Amore and Dolce. Every time we would strike up the band to move on up the trail, strangers pumped us with questions about the breed of Amore and Dolce. Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade through New York moved faster than we were getting hiking up the trail.
When we heard there was a small creek up ahead and around a bend, we made that our destination. The girls would be able to wade in to cool off. Malc and I would be able to scout for suitable location for our holiday photo shoot.
With the creek in sight, I found a good-sized boulder to pr
op against, the girls found the shallow water, and Malcolm found a fellow hiker to take a few pictures.
Click. Click.
“Come in closer.” Click.
“No, closer.” Click.
“You’re too far away.” Click. Click.
That’s the great thing about digital pictures. You can delete all the crappy ones and it hasn’t cost you a thing. Out
of 50 or so pictures, we actually had quite a few that were decent. A couple were card worthy, a few were blog worthy.
The best ones were with our Grand Marshals. Amore and Dolce were the hit of the parade.
If It Falls on the Floor 
The pictures are fabulous!
Thanks! They do love the attention!