Real men love Yorkies -- and YT

What brings a guy to YT?

Believe me, it's a question I've asked myself often over the years. There's nothing masculine about it. We don't often talk about sports or brag about what's under the hood of our pickup trucks. We're not raising pit bulls or dobies or good ol' huntin' dogs.

We talk about cute little Yorkies and do a lot of oohing and ahhing over them. We talk about dressing them up and brushing their hair. Definitely not the stuff the boys talk about at the gym.

My intent when I came here was purely masculine. I was looking for information. Guys are good at that stuff. You know, solving problems. But once I got my answer, I kept hanging out. I was a lurker at first. I felt like the guy who stumbles into the lingerie section at Sears. If no one sees you, it's cool checking out all the girlie stuff.

What kept me here was that I discovered kindred spirits. I was head over heels in love with a 2-pound puppy named Eddie, and here people understood. I didn't have to defend myself. I could say it out loud. And everybody seemed to love him just as much as I did. You got it. You validated my feelings.

It's also a fantastic escape. My job is to put the news on the front page of the paper. And much of it these days is depressing. I spend all day mired in wars and disasters and $4-a-gallon gas. When I go home, I don't care to watch more of it on the TV news. I want an escape. And YT provides it.

I come here for a happy fix. No matter how my day goes, I can't help but smile when I see a proud Yorkie owner posting pictures of their pup. Or another filled with pride at how their little one used a pee pad for the first time. Or passed an obedience class. Or visited grandma. There's so much good news. I love it.

Oh, there's bad news here too, but it's always met with compassion. I joke a lot around here about getting in touch with my feminine side, but there's a lot of truth to it. I learned here just how amazingly compassionate women are. You feel so much more than guys do. Well, at least you admit to it and talk about it. I learned a lot about women here. In a very strange twist, I think coming here made me a better man.

Thanks for that. And thanks for letting me hang out in the girlie department.