It’s an internet world, everything is done on line. We shop on line, we buy movie tickets on line, we find old friends on line and we date on line. My last remaining single girlfriend recently met the love of her life on line. She persuaded me to join. I was hesitant but felt it unfair to pass judgment without knowing from whence I spoke so we crafted my profile and posted it sans picture.

Immediately all the usual hounds sniffed out the new, well let’s just say they found me. My girlfriend urged me to stay the course and eventually, yes, a normal enough guy did write to me. He had a nice picture, said he had a dog and didn’t seem like a serial killer so I answered him and suddenly I had a social life.

He was well mannered and educated and even had a job. He respected my values and was always a gentleman. All in all he was a wonderful match and yet I couldn’t help but feel like there was a shoe waiting to drop.

Last Saturday we stopped at his house on our way to dinner. Once inside I found the other shoe. There, in the foyer, was a dog crate and behind its black bars was an old collie. There was no food bowl in the crate, just a bowl of water and a dirty blanket.

I crouched down in front of the crate and the old boy immediately put his head in my hand. My date told me to just ignore him explaining that he had to be kept in a crate because he had too many accidents in the house. My immediate reaction was that my date was about to have an accident in the house.

There was no way I was leaving that house without the dog and I was in no mood to pretend otherwise. I offered my date one-hundred and fifty dollars, all the cash I had on me, for the dog.  He looked at me like I was crazy and then I think he realized how crazy I was about to get and we had a deal.

I call the old boy ‘Harmony’ and every night when he curls up beside me in bed I am amazed at how I, too, found love on line.

.