Our Heroes

Duncan is our political animal. Since his dad is supervisor of our town, Duncan, from his first day in his new home, has gone to work with Dad. He has full run of the town hall. There is a budget item for his cookies. People come in to meet him. Everyone's heard about him. He's just turned a year and he knows how things should run at the town hall.

So when one day he heard some noise coming from the judge's chambers., he went down to straighten things out. Noise is a no-no. He trotted down and found a mother and a daughter having a noisy row in front of the judge. He walked up to each of the shouting women and pressed his big Newfy nose against their legs. They stopped yelling. The judge said, "Duncan, get out of here." Duncan trotted out like a good kid but came right back, stood at the judge's desk, and eyeballed the ladies. There was no further unruliness.

When we talked to our animal communicator, Righteous Duncan explained he thought the ladies were going to come to blows and that isn't allowed. Duncan's great grandmother, Mrs. Flynn, is still breaking up fights. She'll press a boy twice her size and much more powerful against a fence if he's picking a fight with another boy. They are natural peacemakers" the very best kind of politician. Added 1/14/07
 

Katie saves us all from a fire. Katie, Champion Blue Heaven's Catherine the Great, Versatile newf., is 12 and a half. She is virtually deaf but still takes her walks in the woods and comes up the stairs to the bedroom every night. One night last summer we had a terrible lightning storm.  My husband slept. I was up. Katie was pacing.  I heard a loud pop.  But then I heard nothing else. Katiewas still pacing. "Okay, Kate. You can't go outside to wee wee but I'll take you down in the basement. I'm not going out iwth all that lightning."  Kate followed me to the basement where I discovered the ceiling was on fire.   All the dogs are kenneled at night in the basement. The air conditioning units had been hit. The gas lines were already smoldering. And fire was running across the ceiling over the dog runs. I moved as many dogs out as I could. and got them into the cars, called the fire department. My husband was able to quench the fire with an extinguisher.  By the time the fire department came, it was out. They checked everything. From somewhere, Katie showed up in front of the house. We were just sitting at two in the morning on benches, exhausted, soaking wet, still shaking. Katie walked up to the chief who was sitting next to me, put her head on his lap for a long time, looked into his eyes, then moved over to the fireman standing in front of us, leaned against him, looked up into his eyes.  I knew she was saying thank you. But it was she who had saved us all. Added 1/14/07