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"Full Disclosure: I have a soft spot for golden retrievers Jenny from Slaves to Fashion had me awing and cooing at my desk yesterday. Her sister&amp;#x27;s dog had puppies--look what she sent me: My brothers and I grew up with a golden retriever. We picked her out in November &amp;#x27;94--there were carpets of leaves everywhere and it was cold enough for mittens. I remember the breeder&amp;#x27;s red brick home in Sussex, NJ, and how it smelled like corn muffins and coffee. There were chickens in the driveway and the porch steps creaked when we walked up them. The screen door smacked on the frame but didn&amp;#x27;t latch in and the breeder was a smily woman--in a night gown and sweat pants, barefoot, her feet slapping on the linoleum. Downstairs eight puppies were piled on Lisa, the mama. My Dad told the breeder we wanted a girl so she plopped four puppies on the floor and Brandy came right up to my Dad and licked his shoe. Afterwards, little Brandy dipped her face in a big basin of water for a drink, but toppled in, head first. Lisa jumped up and fetched her from the bowl with her mouth. I remember thinking how extraordinary it was for her to respond in such an urgent way. A couple of puppies were feeding at the time and one tried to hang on. Sweet Brandy is buried in the yard of the home my brothers and I grew up in. Sigh. I often wished she was alive when I was pregnant. She was excellent company. When I was recovering from my spinal surgery in 1997 she never left my side. Same for my Dad when he got home from Memorial Sloan-Kettering. Pup defined loyal. I&amp;#x27;ve always been a maternal person so caring for JD never once scared me. When I saw JD for the first time the connection I felt for him was so obvious it was like I was meeting him for the hundredth time that day. Same with when he cried--there, there little one. I feel lucky it came so natural and apparently there&amp;#x27;s a reason: The Functional Neuroanatomy of Maternal Love: Mother&amp;#x27;s Response to Infant&amp;#x27;s Attachment Behaviors, by Madoka Noriuchi, Yoshiaki Kikuchi and Atsushi Senoo found that a limited number of mother&amp;#x27;s brain areas were specifically related to maternal love, and the specific pattern of mother&amp;#x27;s response was observed for her infant&amp;#x27;s attachment behaviors evoking mother&amp;#x27;s care-taking behaviors for vigilant protectiveness. Have a great weekend (stay cool--it&amp;#x27;s in the 90&amp;#x27;s in NJ, which means we&amp;#x27;re going swimming!) and tune in next week--I have a big announcement to make. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.glamour.com/sex-love-life/blogs/storked/2008/07/mothers-instinct>