Of Dogs and Fleas

One half of the above wonderful dogs are available at the local rescue shelter. They need homes and families and love and have the same to give in bunches. Even if you haven’t a place for one other than in your heart you can truly be helpful.

The professionals and volunteers at your local shelter do incredibly unselfish work in order to help unwanted dogs and cats find permanent homes.  Some come from abusive situations, some are strays and others are voluntarily surrendered by their families for myriad reasons, many heartbreaking.  Most have obviously received some level of training, making their transition and assimilation to family life that much easier; It’s always so gratifying to realize our short-term goal, a “daily-double” during a walk. Recently on a walk this beautiful, sweet black lab peed for literally five minutes. I thought I was watching “A League of Their Own”, because it was some good peeing indeed!

I really enjoy going there as all of the pups are thrilled to see me, or maybe they just need to go out, I’m not sure.  I am sure that the more I go visit them the more I want to go.  I’m not sure that I’m ready to take one home and wonder if I will ever be.  So far I’ve been successful in not taking them ALL home, as would be my want.  I hug them, hold them, talk to them and generally get as close as possible.  And the best news; to challenge an old adage, I have never come home with fleas.

While generally and specifically comforting, this presents a confounding set of relevant questions, such as: Have dogs ever received fleas by humans that lay down with them? If either species contacts the other, does the flea-ridden party always transfer to the unflea-bitten party?  Is it flea-bitten or flea-ridden, anyway?  Are these properly hyphenated words ( Dr. Jefferson?).  Is this entire diatribe truly about dogs and fleas or is it a metaphor?

Were not certain of answers to any of these and other questions.  We haven’t even studied metaphors but am sure.  In fact we don’t even have a astrophysics department. What we do know is that here at TTCU we pride ourselves in being totally apolitical, so it has nothing to do with Washington DC.

Find your sunspot and help someone else find theirs:Dr. Fowler