Throughout my life I’ve always heard people automatically refer to dogs as “he.” I used to have a girl dog, and was always answering people asking questions such as “What’s his name?” and “How old is he?” with “Her name is…” and “She is …” It wasn’t a big deal, you often can’t tell whether a dog is male or female without a closer look than the polite observer wants to take, but comments always defaulted to the masculine. (I once met a little girl who, when I told her my dog was a girl dog and not a boy dog, asked “Has he always been a girl?”)

Last weekend we took A.J.to the field across the street and let him run loose for a little while. While he was running around we met another couple out with their dogs. We stopped to talk and they said “It looks like she’s having fun. That’s a girl, right?”

Last night we were walking A.J. and we stopped along the street to let a little girl and her mother pet him. The mother asked “What’s her name? It’s a she, right?”

I have a close friend who has spent time with A.J. and has been hearing about him from the day we brought him home. She frequently refers to him as “her.”

Maybe it’s the long, curly hair; I really don’t know. But whatever it is, it’s become apparent that my crazy boy is also a very pretty boy.