Pat-a-cake, Pat-a-cake, Baker's Man

If you've been wondering why I haven't been blogging much lately, it's because I've literally been up to my ears in flour, baking cookies at the Brushtown Barkery for the Sassy Mae Fund Drive.

Conceived in 2001 by a young and aspiring philanthropist named Beulah Ruth, the Brushtown Barkery began as a modest operation and has expanded greatly over the years. In addition to the brindle baker, the staff now includes a full-time quality control technician, Monsieur Roger. The mission of the Barkery is simple — create an irresistible product for pooches, beg for bequests by batting big, brown Boxer eyes, bake biscuits and donate the resulting dough to a charity of choice.

Sounds simple, eh? Believe me, until you experience business at the Barkery firsthand, you have no idea of the amount of work involved. Roger and I alone have pounded the pavement and peddled more than 200 orders of biscuits thus far. So last weekend, Mom and I pumped out close to 2,500 biscuits in various shapes and flavors to fulfill the initial round of orders. Before being bagged and leaving the Barkery, each batch is sampled by Senior Quality Control Tech Monsieur Roger to insure perfection!

The financial support from everyone for the Sassy Mae Fund Drive has been absolutely overwhelming. Equally important is that Sassy Mae continues to steadily improve because of the exceptional medical care and loving foster care that she's receiving.

Although the bulk of my begging has ended, I continue to accept donations. Unlike Shippensburg University, Mom's alma mater, I won't pester you every single evening with a phone call pleading for money. All that I ask is that you periodically stop by my blog to read about upcoming fund drives near you. And, it's always great to receive expressions of thanks and support through e-mail messages and comments posted to the blog, so keep 'em rolling, rolling, rolling rawhide.

The culmination of our Sassy Mae Fund Drive will take place at the Cherry Blossom Cluster dog show in Timonium, Maryland on Saturday, April 18, during which time Roger and I plan to present a giant check to Adopt A Boxer Rescue. I also plan to be in the ring that day, so if you're in the area, we'd love for you to come out and show your support. It should be a howl of a good time.