Waitsfield, Vermont.  At the offices of The Valley Reporter last week, the regular “office assistants” LeRoy Brown, Pearl Bailey, and Roxi were joined by two distinguished guests, Zoe, a black lab, and Marleaux, a yellow lab.  Human staffers served as pet sitters while Zoe’s and Marleaux’s families were away. From all accounts, the guests were perfect, but the news of the day was a little hairy…

My apologies if I am not spelling “Marleaux” correctly – my source was uncertain the exact spelling, only to tell me that it wasn’t “Marley” and that it is spelled with an “x” in it somewhere.  Upon research, “Marleaux” is a French family name, and also the name of a handcrafted bass guitar company in Germany. Perhaps there’s a musician in Marleaux’s family? He sure is a sweet dog!

Zoe is part of the Utter family, and I have been told that her singular thought is food.