My cousin, Nancy took a spill and her dog, Sir Cecil tried to comfort her.

Back in the days of snow and more snow, our now-departed-but-always-missed-beloved-dog, Pattertwig didn’t like to go outside. We had to make a path for her to walk through in the snow before she would go out. Then she would hop around like a bunny rabbit. In the above photo, Sabby was taking advantage of Patter as he was inside the nice warm house and Patter was waiting to be let in. Sabby liked Patter a lot but he always has had a tendency to rub it in when he finds himself on top of any situation. I miss Pattertwig.

I think Sabby does too.

Go see many other cats making memories at the Modulator’s Friday Ark #129.

A German Shepherd plays good Samaritan…….

THOMASVILLE, Ga. — A bruised and battered south Georgia woman credits a wayward German shepherd with rescuing her after her car careened down an embankment, tossing her through the rear window and leaving her sprawled, cut and bleeding, on the vehicle’s trunk.

Thirty-six-year-old Shannon Lorio said the dog, which has since been given the name “Hero,” pulled her by her collar off the trunk and dragged her about 50 yards through briars to the edge of a highway and let her lean against him so that she could stand up and flag a passing motorist.

Officials of the Thomasville-Thomas County Humane Society, which runs the local animal shelter — now Hero’s temporary home — were so impressed with the victim’s account they have arranged to have Hero evaluated for search and rescue work.

“That dog is always going to have a special place in my heart,” Lorio said Friday during a tearful reunion with the dog. “He’s my hero.”

Lorio, who still has scratches and bruises on her arms and legs, spent most of a night in the hospital, until she insisted on being released. She still walks with a limp. Cuts on her left elbow are held closed by more than 20 metal staples.

I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with German Shepherds. When I was a teen a stray German Shepherd left his pack of fellow dog pals and came into our yard. We named him Sloopy. He was so gentle even our ferocious cat, Precious loved him and would curl up with him to sleep.

He was with us for a couple of years before he came down with distemper and died. This was before a vacine and there was nothing we could do but bury him on the mound, our hearts broken.

Another stray German Shepherd killed several of our cats.

When we were living at Fort Monroe, VA, a neighbor’s German Shepherd attacked our poodle, Sugar as our daughter was taking her out for a walk. It killed Sugar and broke our hearts.

Reading about this splendid German Shepherd, “Hero” brings back to mind the valiant and gentle, Sloopy, who left the pack for love of us. Shepherds are a wonderful breed of dog.

This is Beau, my sister’s cat, enjoying being outside.

This is Arrow and his friend, Mr. Jones. (Mr. Jones is the collie)

My sister woke up the other day and opened up her kitchen cabinet to get a coffee cup and there sat Beau.

Later on when she walked into her sons’ bedroom she discovered Arrow in the lower bunk, sleeping. Somehow both Beau and Arrow had managed to be where neither were supposed to be.

This is such a good news story. I was listening to Laura’s show yesterday and someone else was subbing for her because she was out searching for her dog, Troy. On Labor Day, Dr. Troy, Laura’s beloved dog for twelve years, escaped from her house. Because Laura had recently moved Troy must have become disoriented and lost. Evidently, it took a couple of days to find Troy.

And in related news, Joe Lieberman, if he hasn’t already, needs to get a dog.

Hat tip: Betsy’s Page

This article is on the home page of MSN.com. It asks the question, “Does Your Dog Need Daycare?”

I’m getting ready to go over my parents house and help them give their young pup, Pal, some vitamins.

One day a month or so ago, Pal’s mother, Daisy, managed to get out of the fence, was picked up by the Humane Society, ended up in the pound and contracted Distemper. My parents neglected to get her the shot when she had her rabies shot.

It is still hard for me to believe that the vet didn’t stress the importance. So, Daisy was in the pound less than a day but she managed to pick up Distemper and she infected Pal, the adorable puppy. Puppys have a much harder time with Distemper and it’s now severe with Pal. Daisy seems to have recovered.

Daisy’s puppies were six weeks old last weekend so they are ready to find homes. Three of these four puppies found homes yesterday, one is going to be staying with Daisy and the other two were already adopted before the photo was taken. They are such fine pups. Amazingly well behaved.

Just the other night I tucked in to read the mail version of The Weekly Standard and turned to Fred Barnes’ article in the Casual Section. It was about a dog named Sophie and very touching.

I thought right then that I was so glad that my parents have Daisy, a puppy who just appeared in their yard one day a couple of months ago. I don’t even know her breed but she is very good natured and loves my folks. Her coat is so soft and luxurious to the touch.

Daisy’s brought a lot of joy to my folks and even though they are very busy with their antique shop, church and social life (and their cats, Toni and Whitey) they always have time for Daisy.

My parents had really grieved over the loss of Pattertwig about a year and a half ago. She had originally been our dog but when we went overseas we left her with them because she was too frail to travel so far and she loved my folks. They loved her back. Daddy took her with him everywhere including jogging and just running around in the car. When Patter began to fail it was very sad.

So when Daisy came along a few months ago she seemed a godsend.

But yesterday evening my mother called me just as I was about to go out to dinner with my two daughters and son-in-law. She told me that when she and my Dad returned home from work there was no Daisy in the yard. (They have a fenced-in yard with a gate they keep closed and locked.) Ever since there was an apartment complex built next to their property they’ve been very careful to lock their gate even when they didn’t have a dog so my mother was worried that someone might have stolen Daisy.

I told my mom that we would come over after dinner to search for Daisy and we went on with our plans. I felt a little guilty about that but couldn’t understand how Daisy could have gotten out of a yard that was so secure. I figured that if she had disappeared it had to have been because someone had purposely taken her. After dinner we drove over to my parents’ house and stopped in front of the gate waiting for my dad to let us in. He had a funny look on his face as he walked up to the gate.

I asked him if they had found Daisy and he asked me how I knew about her being missing. His response confused me so I asked him what was going on. He led us through the yard and under the carport where they had old junk they were “meaning” to either take to the antique shop or get rid of. As we got closer to the house we could hear some mewing or crying and I looked over at my dad and saw a smile on his face.

Daddy said that he and mother had gone on to supper after they couldn’t find Daisy and had just returned home and heard some crying.

They found Daisy with six puppies. All healthy and beautiful. She had them underneath a chair and was very protective of them but still got up to greet us. We went out to the local Petco to find some special treats for her and her pups and coaxed her into moving the puppies into her doghouse which we re-located much closer to the house. Daisy had given birth to her puppies in the most secluded, secure area she could find and that’s why my parents couldn’t find her earlier.

What a delightful surprise! What we had earlier thought was really bad news became very good news indeed! Now we just have to find homes for all the puppies but we can look forward to a couple of months of puppy fun!

THIS IS A DOG STORY. You’re not required to be a dog lover or a mystic to understand it. But it’ll help if you at least like dogs and don’t dismiss mystical occurrences out of hand.

Until Sophie arrived, I had no idea how deeply attached one could get to a dog. In truth, I didn’t understand it until two months ago when Sophie died, killed by rat poison that someone …

Registration is required for Fred Barnes’ piece but it is worth it.

I entered Daisy into the Carnival of the Dogs this Sunday and it is hosted by Mickey’s Musings. Check it out!