The Dog-mother

Don Corleone: “Do I have your loyalty?"

Clemenza: “Yes, always Godfather.”

The Godfather

            It’s Mother’s Day, and there’s one kind of mom that gets practically no credit for her goodness. This woman is the adoptive mother of a dog -- the dog-mother, if you will. A century ago, an attorney named George Graham Vest delivered his famous speech “Tribute to the Dog.” But he never spoke an ode to the dog-mother. I shall attempt to right this.

TRIBUTE TO THE DOG-MOTHER

            To the dogs of the world:

            The puppies you bore in the middle of the night with loving care may prove ungrateful. Those with whom you share an occasional pig ear may never offer one in return. The bones you have accumulated, may be taken from you. Your reputation may be tainted after you fail to catch that ever-elusive rabbit. The puppy you dig holes with may turn against you and become your sworn enemy. The dog that may be the first to salute you when success is upon you may be the first to shun you when failure settles its loathsome cloud upon you head.

            The one pillar of a friend that any dog may hope for in this unkind world, the one that never deserts you, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous, is your dog-mother. A dog-mother stands by you -- her pup -- in prosperity and in poverty, in health and in sickness. She will sleep on the cold ground, where the wintry winds howl and the snow drives fiercely, only so that she may comfort her pup in his trembling hour of need. When all other friends desert by dashing to ball games or the mall, places where no normal dog can go, she remains. When riches take wings and the family can no longer afford Milk Bones, she is a constant in sneaking you her last bite of roast beef or final nibble of cookie.

            And when the last scene comes, and death takes you in its embrace and your body is laid away in the cold ground, she will cry longer and harder than the most sensitive of men or the most heartbroken of children. She is always faithful and true, even in your death.   

            Mix up the letters of "the dog-mother" and what do you get? The Godmother.

            Capiche?