I’m starting off 2008 with some sad news: my friend Liz’s dog Loretta has passed away. I lived with Liz and Loretta during the summer of 2000. Loretta was a big, beautiful black Labrador, and to say that she was the sweetest dog would be a giant understatement. I’d been warned that Loretta generally disliked men (maybe because she lived in an apartment shared by 4 women), but she and I got along great. Maybe it’s because I would secretly feed her teriyaki-flavored beef jerky. I hadn’t really seen Loretta since I moved out of that apartment, but ran into her while Liz was taking her for a walk one day over the summer. Loretta was basically blind by then, and whether she recognized me or not, she seemed happy to see me. Liz said that doctors discovered Loretta had lung cancer last weekend, and she was put to sleep immediately to spare her further suffering. She would have turned 14 years old this month; Liz owned her for 13 of those years. My dad is allergic to dogs, as is my roommate, so those 2 months with Loretta are the closest I’ve ever been to owning a dog. I’ll miss her a lot.