I happen to be the proud owner of a beautiful long coat German shepherd dog. Yanna has taught me many wonderful lessons over the last 6 years. Lessons on life, love and the pursuit of happiness have all come out of this special relationship. Recently, we were outside working and Yanna was displaying one of her character defects quite boisterously. She is a stick hound, ball hound, rock hound, she is just a HOUND when it comes to retrieving. We were digging holes for fence posts and s...

Like many little girls, I loved horses. I read horse books, watched horse movies and dreamed wild horse dreams. My favorites were the Black Stallion and Black Beauty, tales of kindness and courage, of heartbreak, defeat and triumph. I’ll never forget when my neighbor, Renee Croog, got big Red. Red was a big gentle quarter horse gelding that turned the head of every girl in the neighborhood. I begged my mom to let me take riding lessons from Renee. My mom, being of a different innate fab...