There has not been a day, in five years, when it wasn't on my mind. But if I knew, when I started, where it would lead, would I again put a Labrador puppy in a custom-made, multiple-layered dress with a power-blue apron? Would the snappy red kerchief with the thin, blond braids dangle from her furry little head?

I have always loved dogs. They speak to me. And now, because of the obsession, I mean that...