Meet Henry. He had me at hello. He was born on February 19, 2007 in Hemet, Calif.  He’s a rambunctious white cloud whose favorite activity is stealing shoes that are more than half his size while he runs around the living room with them securely in his mouth.

Henry went through a pretty lengthy surgery for luxating patella on both his knees, which I’ve documented on this site. His surgery is probably what I get the most emails on from readers passing through.

Henry loves blueberries, green bell peppers and whipped cream. He thinks he’s 50 lbs when he’s really 5

It’s hard to explain just how much he means to me. As an animal-loving Iranian born Armenian child growing up in Los Angeles, I begged my parents for a dog for more than 20 years. They were both born and raised in a country where owning a dog as a pet was taboo, so I got goldfish, ladybugs and even lizards in lieu of a dog. You know, just anything that could be kept in closed corridors with a lid.

But then somehow Henry came into my life. It took more than 20 years to get him, but it was worth the wait.