"I got a dog for the companionship and to encourage me to walk more after recuperating from badly busted up leg due to a motorcycling accident last year (my wife has since forbid this activity),” explains Raymond Ost, the chef/owner of Sandrines Bistro in Cambridge, MA.

“We chose Éclair—a Portugese water dog much like our President's—from an area breeder, and watched and waited impatiently for several weeks until she was ready to come home with us. We knew we'd made the right choice because, even as a young puppy, her temperment fit in with the life of a chef.

During Sandrine's annual Bastille Day celebration last summer, which is held as a street fair, she calmly slept in her crate while I flipped sausages and kraut for 10 hours. Now almost a year old, Eclair is the light of my life. I smile every time I think about her, much as I used to when my daughter Sandrine was born."