The Gift of Giving

This past weekend, I had a surprise visit by my new friend Scout Suter. She's a 1.5 year old, red, standard poodle and has the same type of fur as my fuzzy cousins, Hannah and Cooter. We had a swell time chasing each other around the backyard. She's very fast and, while I hate to admit it, may be a little more agile cutting the corners than I am at this stage in my racing career.

Judging from the stories that Mom has told me about Nana Suter, Scout is a chip off the old block when it comes to giving. On Saturday, she showed up bearing a bag of goodies which I have been enjoying immensely. Don't get me wrong, I love gifts! But, like the Suters, I try to live my life by the age-old adage, "It's better to give than receive."

While I'm on the subject of giving, yesterday Mom performed her civic duty and gave the "gift of life" during a blood drive sponsored by the Student Bar Association at the Law School. Just like clockwork - every 56 days - she schedules a date with a vampire phlebotomist to have a pint of blood sucked from her arm to help saves lives.

Please don't think that I am looking a gift horse in the mouth, but I must elaborate one of the gifts that I received from Scout. It was a matching collar and leash that bears the phrase "I'm taking my owner to DQ (Dairy Queen)." Being the little devil that I am, I considered taking a black Sharpie and crossing out DQ and replacing it with Masseys - the name of a locally owned and operated ice cream joint - because M & D love their homemade custard. But, Mom explained that would be considered a slap in Scout's face. After all, her parents, who owned and operated the Carlisle DQ for more than 25 years, provided Mom with her first job as a cake decorator which helped pay her way through college while learning the importance of responsibility and customer service, valuable skills that she has used to paw her way up the food chain at the Law School.