"She is alone! Now is the chance!" after waiting in the backseat for a long while, I couldn't stand it any more.

I hopped out of the red convertible, and gave a good shake to my coat - after all, the first impression is very important. With my most nonchalant air, I strolled toward her.

I had noticed her before; elegant and demure, but with a twinkle in her eyes that spoke volumes of mischief waiting to be explored.

It was her quiet ways that attracted me initially. They always do. Perhaps it is the challenge of drawing them out. Or perhaps in the recesses of my mind, I sense that girls like her are the deep, thinking type. Of course different personalities have different good and bad points. But purely from the point of attraction, like light vacuumed by black holes, my attention is always hopelessly captured by her kind.

The first time I saw her was last winter. She was with someone, strolling on the beach. She was attentively listening to the boy, who was but five or six years old. It is always a good sign of gentleness and compassion when one is patient with a child - few spare the time nowadays. From time to time the boy would stop, and she would stop with him, never in a bit of hurry to run along. The boy would pick up a pebble, ask her to watch how far he could throw it, and she would just sit and watch, following the little stone with her eyes. When the boy jumped up and down, exclaiming how far the pebble had gone, she would also get excited with him and let out a word of excitement.

The second time I saw her was when I was convinced that she was not a fair-weather friend. They were together again - she and the boy, sitting on the stairs of the little boy's back porch. Tears were streaming down his face. She sat right by him, watching him with her sad eyes. From time to time she put her head against his, offering her shoulder. She was there to share his sorrow. She was a real friend.

My goal now, is to be her friend! As I was slowly moving toward her in what seemed an eternity, suddenly someone called her from inside the house. Quickly I stopped. Fortunately, I was right by a lamppost. I turned my head and examined the writings on it. With my head turned slightly up and toward her, I monitored the situation out of the corner of my eyes. She went in and came out with some cookies, then sat down again to enjoy her snack. I resumed my final approach. As I was nearing her, I could smell her sweet scent in the wind, mixed with the tempting smell of peanut butter cookies. Maybe my opening line could be: "Can I have one?" "No, I'd better not," I thought. "A simple 'hello' will be more appropriate for meeting her for the first time!"

Just as I was three feet in front of her, she raised her head and our eyes met. Those kind and inviting eyes just melted me. My heart stopped. Amazingly enough, I did not freeze, but greeted her with my intended 'hello': "Arf, arf!" She wagged her tail and looked at me with her sweet eyes.