I can’t exactly remember when and where my fascination with dogs started–but it wasn’t because I grew up with dogs. My mother’s dad raised Border Collies that he trained to herd sheep–they weren’t pets, and she had no desire to have the stinky dirty beasts in the house. And then my little brother developed allergies to dogs (and cats, and chocolate, and just about everything else you can imagine), so the first pet I was allowed to own was a turtle that I named Paddlefoot. My love of dogs must have started with books and movies. The first dog I remember knowing about was Lassie, the transgender wonder dog (you might remember that Lassie was always played by a male dog. Anybody know why?). But she/he was a little too perfect to be my first dog crush. That flowing coat, though. She/he was totally the Fabio of dogs, wasn’t she/he? I really fell in love with dogs from reading The Hundred and One Dalmatians by Dodie Smith. Yes, it was an actual book before ‘ol Walt made it into a movie. I read and re-read the book almost as often as I read Charlotte’s Web (but I didn’t cry since…