She’s asleep now, stretched out in a chair in my office, secure “mom” is busy at her desk. But just as soon as she hears the ping that means I finished at the computer, Little Girl dog’s feet hit the floor. The little furry bundle of love has been my companion long enough to know what my movements mean.

She does her happy, waggy-tail dance when I apply make-up. That could mean a ride in the car. O happy day! Or it could mean she will be alone for a few hours. When I say, “Sorry Little Girl, you can’t go. I’ll be back in a little while,” her long fluffy tail droops and she slowly slinks off to her chair. There is no loving good-bye lick for me; just a pout as if to say, “How could you?”

Ah, but what joy when I return! All is forgiven. She’s at the door when I open it, twisting her body in that familiar happy dance. No matter her mom left her for a few hours. She is overjoyed to see me. We are friends and companions again. She reminds me of an anonymous saying I once read: “A dog can express more with his tail in minutes than his owner can express with his tongue in hours.” And from another anonymous person came these choice words: “The reason a dog has so many friends is that he wags his tail instead of his tongue.”

Dogs and cats can be wonderful, amusing, and loving companions to humans of all ages. Mark Twain had this to say about dogs: “If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. It is the principle difference between a dog and a man.” Then, there is his opinion on how dogs and cats differ: “If animals could speak, the dog would be a blundering, outspoken fellow; but the cat would have the rare grace of never saying a word too much.”

The former President of the French Republic, Charles de Gaulle, said, “The better I get to know men, the more I find myself loving dogs.” Poet Emily Dickinson wrote, “Dogs are better than human beings because they know but do not tell.”

Haven’t we all pondered whether our beloved dogs and cats would go to heaven? Author Robert Louis Stevenson emphatically expressed his thoughts on that question: “You think dogs will not be in heaven? I tell you, they will be there long before any of us.”

Although I prefer dogs, I have friends and relatives who are cat lovers. They probably feel somewhat like Author Charles Dickens who wrote, “What greater gift than the love of a cat?”

Humorist J. Billings said, “A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself.” And I found this quote, which might be my favorite: “A dog is the only thing that can mend a hole in your broken heart.”

Nina Keenam is a former newspaper reporter. Her column appears on Saturdays.