Angel Animals Story of the Week, 4-17-05, "Adopted by a Prince" -- Angel Animals Story of the Week

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Date Posted: 18:33:16 04/17/05 Sun
Author: Angel Animals Network
Subject: Angel Animals Story of the Week, 4-17-05, "Adopted by a Prince"

Angel Animals Story of the Week
April 16, 2005
Visit us at www.angelanimals.net

Dear Friends of Angel Animals,

Welcome to the Angel Animals Story of the Week.

An article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, "Herding Can Be Canine Therapy," by Greg Bensinger of Columbia News Service caught our attention this week. It told about a discovery by dog lovers that acting-out pooches become transformed by having the chance to fulfill their purpose in life.

Because so many breeds of dogs instinctively are herders, people are taking their dogs to ranches where the dogs learn to round up and run with sheep, cattle, ducks, and llamas. They herd to their hearts' content, or until their human companion's money runs out paying for this service. Then the dogs go home and their previous aggressiveness and depressions fade into the sunset.

Colleen Paige, and animal behaviorist in Port Townsend, Washington is quoted in this article as saying, "The sedentary lifestyle most domesticated dogs lead in the city is like taking someone who is naturally a fantastic painter and making him work a desk job."

The article made us think about what these dogs are telling all of us. In big, bold letters: FULFILL YOUR PURPOSE.

You'll be discontented, crabby, disillusioned, sad, and barking at everybody until you find some way to take steps toward being all you were meant to be and doing what you were intended to do.

Enough said. Let's see if the dogs delivered the message.

Today's story is about a prince of a dog named Prince who was a "working" dog but special in the work he did for his human family.

We welcome your stories for possible future publication in this newsletter or in one of our upcoming books.

We invite you to e-mail this week's newsletter in its entirety to others who might enjoy it.

Animal blessings,
Allen & Linda Anderson

* * * * *

STORY OF THE WEEK

ADOPTED BY A PRINCE

By Jo "Sky" Sawyer-Roof

When I was almost five years old and my siblings were in school for the day, my mom drove me to the ASPCA to pick up a small puppy or tiny dog. When we got there, I could not stand the barking and yapping. I went straight to the cage of a large German shepherd dog.

The attendant said this dog had been picked up at a schoolyard after being called in because he was frightening the children. He did not bark. He sat across from me. Put his paw up and I touched it. His eyes and mine locked. We belonged together.

My mom dragged me away to look at the puppies. I told her "Mom, I don't want a puppy. I want Prince". NO way.

So, we left without any dog. When my siblings came home, they were angry with me. My mom said we would go back the next day to pick up a puppy.

I went back and as soon as our car stopped and we were at the shelter, I ran to Prince's cage. He was waiting for me. I would not leave his side. At last, my mother relented.

The attendant got a long-handled wooden pole and led Prince to the car. I sat in the backseat, and that huge shepherd was herded into the back seat with me. My mother was petrified. He put his head in my lap and went to sleep. We rode silently home.

A few months later we moved from the city to the country. My Prince and I went to the woods daily together to explore. He became my best friend.

A few years later my aunt and her family came to live with us. My aunt's husband was losing his job. Prince became the family's baby sitter. The children were allowed outdoors only with the Dog watching them. He would grab the two-year-old by the seat of his pants and pull him back when he wandered too far. He guarded the baby with his life.

They would put the baby outdoors in her carriage. No one dared go near. One day a sales lady came. My mother heard the dog growling. She came out and told the lady the dog had a working job and not to go near the baby.

My mother invited the woman inside. She listened to her spiel and showed her out when they were done.

All of a sudden my mother heard the lady screaming. She had doubled back, after pretending to leave, and had tried to pick up the baby. This was the only time Prince bit anyone. The woman said she was going to sue us. My mother said if she did not leave the property immediately she would call the police on her for trespassing and for interfering with the dog when she had been told to stay away.

Prince was a working dog and was special. We all loved my Prince. I have never tried to have another dog. He was my one and only. To me, no one can top him.

BIO:
Jo "Sky" Sawyer-Roof has a BFA from the University of Arizona. She lives in Ore Valley Arizona, which means the Valley of Gold because of the gorgeous golden blooms that surround the area; turning it into a golden glow that makes it look like a place out of time. Jo was an assistant editor of the Stochastic Models, Communications in Statistics. She is a contributing author to FEATHERS BRUSH MY HEART, complied by Sinclair Browning (2002) about women who have had contact with their mothers since the mother has left the physical plane.

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT:

Was there a special "Prince" in your life? A companion animal who will stay in your heart forever.

* * * * *

ANGEL ANIMALS QUOTES OF THE WEEK

"I have sometimes thought of the final cause of dogs having such short lives and I am quite satisfied it is in compassion to the human race; for if we suffer so much in losing a dog after an acquaintance of ten or twelve years, what would it be if they were to double that time?"
--Sir Walter Scott

"No one can have experienced to the fullest the true sense of achievement and satisfaction who has never pursued and successfully caught his tail."
--Rosalind Welcher

"In the middle of a world that has always been a bit mad, the cat walks with confidence."
--Roseanne Anderson

"Even a cat is a lion in her own lair."
--Indian Proverb

"Be empty of worrying.
Think of Who Created Thought!

Why do you stay in prison
When the door is so wide open?

Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking.
Live in Silence.

Flow down and down in always
Widening rings of Being."
--Jelaluddin Rumi, quoted in LIKE THIS, trans. Coleman Barks, pp.35-36.

* * * * *

ANNOUNCEMENTS

ANGEL CATS: Divine Messengers of Comfort, GOD'S MESSENGERS: What Animals Teach Us about the Divine, and ANGEL ANIMALS: Exploring Our Spiritual Connection with Animals are available at online or regular bookstores and at many gift shops that sell animal books. ANGEL CATS is also a selection of One Spirit Book Club.

Visit our other Website: www.writingontherun.com and subscribe to the free online Writing on the Run Tip of the Week. The May '05 Writer's Digest magazine named Writing on the Run as one of the 101 Best Websites for Writers. Writer's Digest E-Newsletter recommended the website (www.writingontherun.com).

* * * * *

OTHER INFORMATION

The Angel Animals Network is devoted to collecting and disseminating original, true stories about the spiritual connection between people and animals. You can learn more about the Angel Animals Network at www.angelanimals.net.

If you send this newsletter to others (and we hope that you will), please don't change it in anyway and include the information above about the Angel Animals Network. Thank you.

This newsletter is sent to you by the Angel Animals Network. Copyright 2005, Allen and Linda Anderson, Angel Animals Network. All rights reserved. Nothing in this newsletter may be reproduced or published without the written permission of the individual authors and/or copyright owners. Angel Animals(r) is a registered trademark.

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