How Lucky Am I?

This is Kelly Corrigan writing about her dad in her memoir, "The Middle Place," but it just as easily could be written about Mr. Sweetie:

I think people like him because his default setting is open delight. He's prepared to be wowed--by your humor, your smarts, your white smile, even your handshake--guaranteed, something you do is going to thrill him. Something is going to make him shake his head afterward, in disbelief, and say to me, "Lovey, what a guy!" or "Lovey, isn't she terrific?" People walk away from him feeling like they're on their game, even if they suspect that he put them there.

That is Mr. Sweetie to a T. Mr. Sweetie has much the same personality as my dear departed golden retriever. He bounds into a room, full of enthusiasm, with a big smile on his face. If he had a tail it would constantly be wagging. When you call Mr. Sweetie on the phone, he answers as though you were the one person in all the world he was hoping to talk to, as though there is no one else in the world he wanted to hear from but you.

When we visit with friends, he invariably walks away saying, "Now they are good people,"--"good people" being his highest form of compliment.

Don't get me wrong, Mr. Sweetie has his faults, and I could list them, every one. But I won't.