Mark Twain wrote, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” One of the mostly forgotten sagas of World War II was that in November of 1939 (a month after Germany conquered Poland), the Russian army— then the USSR — invaded Finland. Finland was a much smaller country, and the…

“There are no architects, managers, actors, singers, video directors in Ukraine now. Now all are military and volunteers.” Kateryna Virovtseva (Katya) is thirty- two. She was, is, and will be again an architect. For now, she is an animal rescuer. Terrible explosions were heard in Kyiv on February 24th, at…

The summer of 1939 was an emotional rollercoaster in Europe. Neville Chamberlain had signed the “Peace in Our Time” treaty with Germany the summer before. I’m sure that most of the population believed that war was inconceivable in “modern times” — after the Great War (the war to end all…

Dogs, friends, delivery folks and Mormons converge at the Front door and it’s Mayhem! As I write this, trying to elevate the conversation of the human-dog relationship, Toby, our Great Pyrenees, is chasing his tail. The upshot of this is that although dogs can teach us a lot, sometimes they’re…

Resilience is defined as “the process of adapting well in the face of adversity or trauma, the ability to bounce back after difficulty.” This is the story of a special dog named Baron. Baron is a one 1/2-year-old American Pitbull Terrier. …

“To be mature means to face, and not evade, every fresh crisis that comes along.” Fritz Kunkel, Selected Readings, John Sanford “REEEE! Hondo Fire department, respond to 29 Apache Ridge road. 43-year-old female, difficulty breathing.” We rattled up the rutted dirt road in our Med unit and a trailing engine hoping…

Let me set the stage. It was just after dark. Three of us were sitting at our kitchen table. The kitchen has a big sliding glass door that faces the hills east towards the mountains. We all had our heads down, reading or working. The dogs were asleep in…

Act 1 As many adventures begin, it started out as a sleepy guy walking his dogs early in the morning before coffee. The before coffee issue seems, in retrospect, to be crucial. Caffeine imparts an added sense of alertness that would’ve been helpful. We turned left out of our driveway…

As I write this in the heat of an August afternoon, Toby, our Great Pyrenees mix, lies on the cool brick floor of the kitchen. Maisie, our Chihuahua-Terrier mix, runs a little colder. She’s sleeping on a couch in the next room. I can barely see her head poking over…