Marilyn's Musings

I'll never forget the day my mother played hooky. It was back in the late sixties when my mom was teaching seventh grade, and she and one of the art teachers decided to ditch school for the day. In their defense they had each asked for the day off and been denied, so taking matters into their own hands–as my mother so frequently did–they called in sick. I suppose by now the statute of limitations, if there even were such a thing, has long since passed and it's safe for me to tell the story. So at the risk of exposing my mother’s transgression, here goes. Mom and Cozy, who had hair like Albert Einstein and wore all kinds of wild colored kaftans, had a third close friend, Katy, who was in the hospital. It those days, they called themselves the Three Musketeers, being some of the first women of their generation to go back to school as young mothers, graduate college and find full-time positions as teachers. Unfortunately, the prognosis for Katy wasn’t good.  Timing was...

After a year of being pet-less, my husband and I agreed it was time to adopt a new dog.  Last year, at Christmas time, we lost both our standard poodles to different cancers.  It was a devastating blow. But, we figured we had been lucky with them for as long as we had – nearly fifteen years – and we did our best to respect their memory and move forward.  However, as the holidays approached, I was determined to bring a little joy back into our lives. Something in the form of a wet nose, padded paws, and furry tail.  And, because I do believe fate interceded, we found a breeder with pups available post-holiday. Yea! The pups were born November 5 th , ten in all, and like I said, available for adoption between Christmas and New Years. However, there were problems. While the pups were fine, Ali, their mom, a three-year-old standard poodle show dog, was not.  The breeder was faced with some tough choices.  Ali couldn’t be bred again and would have to...