By Anthony Welch

There was a time not too long ago, that Life After 50 was put together in the basement of our publisher Bruce’s home. It was a cozy work environment, and my favorite part was Bruce’s cuddly cat Jazzy finding a place on my desk or my lap.

I’ve always been a cat person, as I’ve mentioned before. We share similar qualities – low key, quiet and loners at times. Not that I don’t like dogs, but it was my preference to not have any the rest of my life.

Well, that changed back in January when seeing how sad my son Jaxson and my wife Ashley were when we had to return a puppy we were babysitting for a few weeks. I caved and told her to do adopt a dog. One dog. She came home with a pair of them (see page 22).

For more than a year, we’ve featured a cat column from the folks over at Happy Cats in our publication. Last month, we decided to cater to dog lovers as well and added a monthly dog column provided by Marti Benson (see Hair of the dog). We felt it was only fair.

Speaking of dogs and cats, we could use more submissions for our “I Love My Pet” section, which includes a photo of your pet (doesn’t have to be a dog or cat) and a few paragraphs about your beloved animal. Email your submissions to me at Anthony@lafifty.com. Deadline is right around the 20^th of each month.

Our new additions, brothers Ping and Relish, have probably added a handful of white hairs to my goatee. It’s like I adopted two more children. But, they are pretty darn adorable when they curl up in our bed … that is until they wake me up at 6 a.m. daily.

It’s well worth the added stress to the see the happiness on the faces of my wife and son.