Victor's first act of survival was completed out of sight of his forever family. It must have happened sometime during the year or so he had been alive. But that history was lost in the mists of time. Puppy time is mistier than people's time. In any case, he was a stray. And he had been sent to the shelter to wonder what the whole thing was about. It was in the colorful days of October when he got lucky. His Boss-to-be ha...

"When I was young I had a dog. My parents decided that we couldn't afford it. It was the Depression." She told the story once more. Their mother had told it before. They always tried to understand. "It was on Christmas Eve. I cried that night. My dog came back in the morning. I thought it was a miracle." When they heard the story they were happy. The first time. "My father gave it away again. We were poor." Hearing the st...

The night is cold. Who will be out tonight?The doorbell rings."Trick or treat!"Oops, he's out."C'mon back inside!"Don't scare the tyke. Give her some treats. She smiles, and the door closes.Grinning, I look at him. He looks at me."Okay, you get one, too."The doorbell rings."Trick or treat!" Another tyke. More treats. He looks up at me."Sure."The doorbell rings again and again. He looks up at me each time.Okay, okay. A new...

Back by popular demand! Here are some more general open letters from my life, for you, my internet friends.Dear Hanukkah food- You are so delicious and so tasty. I'm not even 'properly' Jewish but I would convert just for the food. A Holiday where deep fried foods are eaten? Yes, please. It's not good for my waist line, but the food is just so tasty, and apparently I have weak will power. But that's what New Year's resolu...

Now, I'm not complaining, you understand, but these foreign dogs I’m living with are crazy. I call those house-hounds 'foreign' because one is part German Shepard, another is a mix of French poodle and something else, while the other is probably, more or less, Tibetan. The problem is whenever the French guy sees another dog or any other animal, either alive or animated, on TV, he begins barking and making like a love-stru...

They are so free So high-spirited So loyal  They are dogs  And they represent All that is good  In the world  Dogs come in all Shapes and sizes  But they are all Friendly and kind Man's best friend Of course they are! Oh how I love dogs! Oh how I crave their love Their free-spirit

Earl Powell pushed a shopping cart filled with two huge bags of dog food up to the counter. He also had three pouches of bacon-flavored treats, several packages of flea treatments, and boxes and boxes of little blue bags. There was very little in the cart for his own use; just a can of beans, a loaf of bread, and a jar of peanut butter. His needs were pretty simple, but he had a lot of canine mouths to feed, and that was...

This is a tribute to my wonderful dog Brock. It doesn’t seem that long ago that I was going to the dog pound to see if I could find an Airedale terrier. I had fallen in love with the breed when a friend of mine brought her Airedale to my house while visiting me. He had been one happy-go-lucky guy, and made a great impression on me. So years later, I had gotten a part Airedale-part Husky female; I called her Allysa. I had...

Well, I now finally had my goat. I had waited for this for an awfully long time. There was just one problem now. How was I going to get the dogs to accept her and vise versa ? I lay in bed that night, thinking up different scenarios, on how it was going to go down. The first thing I had to do was get her to trust me. That wasn't going to be easy, since I scared the living daylights out of her by dragging her around by the...

Hail and lightning weren’t the only clandestine storm elements to worry about. Fragments of long ago collided planets and man-made satellites showered down upon a myopic world, proving even intelligent design could crumble. The night skies had turned to searing tracers of flame and red light while the days were chaotic with the sounds and movement of heavy war machinery. The only things on people’s minds were worried ques...