Before Alzheimer’s took over, my dad loved to have talks with Fritz, who ran to meet him at the back door. Fritz was from the Humane Society.
Our dog Maggie, a special member of our family for the past 12 years. Our police officer son-in-law found her in an abandoned yard. (Photo by Jim Warner)
When we were growing up, my brother and I had numerous pets: rabbits, seahorses, an alligator for a short time, white mice, a parakeet, and eight dogs (one at a time). We never had kittens or a cat, but that was because my brother was allergic to them (I thought we should give up my brother so I could have a kitten, but my parents outvoted me.)
Five of our dogs were from the Humane Society, and our first dog when we moved to Fort Scott, when I was 3 and my brother was almost 5, was a dog that had been left behind by the people who rented the house before we did. Rather than shoo her off, of course Mom fed and took care of her. A month later Smokey had a litter of puppies, and when they were old enough, my mother put a sign on the gate of our fence: “Puppies, 5 cents each. To good homes only”
We came home from church the next Sunday, and the gate was open. A note on the back porch was weighed down with a rock and a dime. “We have a good home. We took the last puppy. You can keep the extra nickel. Thank you.”
October is “Adopt a Shelter Dog Month.” This post is not a Public Service Announcement, but I can honestly attest to the joy of having dogs as members of our family. We also love cats; as soon as I had my own home, we began adding wonderful cats to our clan as well, but that’s another post.
October is also “National Popcorn Popping Month,” but a previous post was about microwave popcorn setting off fire alarms in my mother’s assisted living facility, so we’ve already covered that topic. It is also “Cookie Month,” so to play fair, I’ve included a picture of some October-themed cookies. But for the rest of you who might need a nudge for dog adoptions, here are some personal testimonies:
By writer Edith Wharton: “My little dog—a heartbeat at my feet.”
“If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.” ~ Will Rogers
“The average dog is a nicer person than the average person.” ~ Andy Rooney
And Rita Rudner said, “I wonder if other dogs think poodles are members of a weird religious cult.”
If you want to meet new people and have a heated discussion, you can get a bumper sticker like the one we saw on a truck in the parking lot of the dog park: “MY MIXED BREED DOG IS SMARTER THAN YOUR HONOR STUDENT”
October is also SARCASTIC MONTH, but you might want to use sarcasm carefully…
To be fair, October is also “Cookie Month” ~ so here are some samples.
Our daughter’s family adopted Duchess, a wonderful German Shepherd, from a soldier leaving Ft. Riley.
Our granddaughter Grace reading to Maggie.
Things I Want To Tell My Mother 