Many years ago, when all of my brothers and sisters still lived at home together, our family got a dog named, you guessed it, Oliver. In the grand scheme of things, he has been an excellent addition to our family. And even though almost everyone has left home to pursue other life endeavors, Oliver continues to be a mainstay of the house.

Three Kinds of Dog

There are three kinds of dog in the world: 1) inside dogs; 2) outside dogs; and 3) those confused dogs that fall somewhere in-between. My bet is that Oliver is somewhat confused. He spends his days lounging on the back porch or cruising the back yard. But he sleeps inside.

Back in the day, he also spent a significant amount of time leisurely lounging in the family room, usually lying on the floor by the air-conditioning vent. Collectively it was decided that while Oliver was free to socialize with us in the family room, there would be an invisible line over which he was not to cross.

The Backup Line

This line can here be referred to as "the backup line" (though we've never officially called it that in the family); to be sure, there was a time when the true test of how well a person knew our family was whether they could point out "the line". Invariably, when Oliver decided to cross the line, he was met with a barrage of voices, commanding "Oliver, backup." This phrase is so entrenched in the lexicon of Oliver's family and friends that it is only natural to bestow the same loving command on this rather insignificant website.

With that said, welcome to OLIVERbackup.com.