JOHN AND MACKIE

Every evening, around the time the news comes on, Mackie the English Setter decides John has been in his office long enough.

Mackie has an orthopedic bed in there. John bought it, as Margie tells it, because "the poor dog" shouldn't have to lie on the carpet. For most of the afternoon, that bed suits Mackie just fine. He sleeps while John watches the news or pays bills. But Mackie keeps his own schedule, and when he decides the evening has arrived, he starts to bark. He keeps at it until John follows him out to the living room, where Mackie settles onto the couch with his head in John's lap and stays there until bedtime.

When John mentioned recently that they have paintings of every dog they've ever had hanging on their walls, every dog except Mackie, Margie started laughing. She had reached out to me weeks earlier, well before John said a word. She wanted to surprise him for his birthday — a portrait of Mackie to fill the one gap on their wall. It just goes to prove how well Margie knows John and how much he adores his dogs.

Mackie’s registered name is Bayou Bend Mardi Gras McDougall, which is a lot of name for a dog who mostly wants to be on the couch. Given the close relationship between him and John, it was only natural that they both be in the portrait together.