Tales of the Ordinary Days

My assisted selfie of camera-shy Cookie I have a confession. I've never really understood the dog-lover thing. A friend once told me there are three types of animal people in the world; those with a capital "A", those with a lower case "a", and those with no "a". I thought I clearly fell in the lower case category. My dog was second behind my kids, but I still loved him. Over the years, I have known many capital "A's" and many with no "a". I was a lower case. When Harry died, I was very sad. He was a sweet little dog and we missed him dearly. Although Harry did love me back, he equally loved the other people in his life. Harry was everyone's dog and he was happy with that position. And lower case "a", me, was happy with that too. And then came Cookie. Cookie is my step-dog. She moved to Omaha a month ago. Those who have spent time with Cookie and Garrett know that there is a huge affection between owner and...

My skunk identity began in the summer of 2008 in my Aunt Barbara's sun room on Lake Okoboji. My sister-in-law, Robbie, and I were vacationing and stopped over for a coffee. While Barbara brewed the coffee, we noticed the selection of interesting books on her end table. The one that particularly caught our eye was a book called "Medicine Cards" which included a stack of cards with pictures of animals. Hmmm…now that sounded interesting. Barbara had always been a very spiritual and intuitive person.   We were curious as to what this book was all about.   It had to be a hit as it sat at the top of the stack and one that Barbara, our resident expert in such matters, surely referred to often. Barbara came back with the coffee and we inquired. "Well," Barbara told us, "we all have a totem of animals that guides us and represents our inner being. They provide powerful insight and understanding to our unique purpose in life." Wow! That certainly was somet...