Abuse in America - Part 1

I love reading and books. I read a lot of books. For the most part, I've never met a book I didn't like. Very few books have a profound effect on me. Several days ago, I finished reading Carolyn Jessop's book Escape.

Ms. Jessop's book utterly astounded me. "Shocked" may be a better description. I am really having a hard time finding the words to do justice to my feelings about the things I started learning while reading Escape. Today in the United States, uneducated women and children are being emotionally, physically and sexually abused in isolated communities. To make matters even worse, these abuses have continued for at least the last 20 years, possibly more than 50. Although the violations of law and human rights seem to be well documented in many sources, law enforcement and government agencies have done very little to protect the women and children from the ongoing and continued abuse in these communities. Very little has been done to guarantee these victims have any of their Constitutional rights as American citizens. And, adding insult to injury, very, very few of the offenders have been prosecuted.

I am not naive enough to read one person's view and write these allegations without other sources and references. Ms. Jessop's book is not an isolated story. As you will see, too many similar stories exist. Along with many accounts found at specific ex-FLDS websites, other evidence can be found in many Arizona, Colorado, Texas and Utah newspaper accounts. National news and television shows on ABC, CBS, CNN and NBC have covered this story. Other stories have been recounted on the talk shows of Dr. Phil, Oprah and Larry King. Some of these stories, like many in Ms. Jessop's book, are absolutely horrifying.

As I watched coverage of the Warren Jeffs' trial last year on Court TV, I kept asking myself two questions. How could Jeffs be charged with accessory (accomplice) to rape, when no one had been charged with the rape crime? And, how could these charges against Jeffs, a religious sect leader, put him on the FBI's Most Wanted list? From these two questions, I should have been able to surmise I wasn't seeing the whole picture. I had no idea how much I didn't know. With every piece of information and resource I have found, my reality and awareness of our United States changed.

This story has to be told and told and told and told again. Everyone in our country needs to be aware of what is taking place in our "land of the free." Our knowledge and awareness of the FLDS will one day bring freedom and stop the abuses in these communities. Whether polygamy is right or wrong is not for me to judge. Polygamy is not what this is about. I am writing about the abuse and rape of women, and the abuse, abandonment and molestation of children in the United States today.

For brevity's sake, I am only going to give a few details on the history of the FLDS church. A wealth of FLDS historical information exists on-line, in books and movies. You can search on-line for the FLDS, or Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The FLDS is not associated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, also known as the LDS or the Mormon Church. Although the FLDS is an off-shoot of the Mormon Church, the two are completely separate, distinct denominations. The FLDS is defined by their tenet of plural marriage, or polygamy, which was abandoned by the Mormon Church in the 1890's.

The FLDS church was founded after the Mormon Church began excommunicating those who would not denounce plural marriage. The largest population of this excommunicated group of people lived on the Arizona-Utah border in the town of Short Creek. Short Creek became the headquarters of the FLDS. This isolated community later became the twin cities of Hildale, UT and Colorado City, AZ. By straddling the border of two states, residents could easily flee the jurisdiction of one state to the safety of the other.

Until a couple of years ago, most of the residential and commercial property in the towns of Hildale, UT and Colorado City, AZ was owned by the UEP, or United Effort Plan, a subsidiary of the FLDS church. The UEP owned property in these cities has an estimated value of more than $100 million. FLDS members do not own the property on which they live. FLDS leaders, as the governing body of the UEP, had the authority to evict those "out of favor" sect members or families and replace them with those more favorable.

In 2005, after hearing evidence of the sales of undeveloped UEP property without benefiting the FLDS sect members in Hildale and Colorado City, a Utah judge appointed an accountant to take over the UEP. The judge ordered the dissolution of the UEP to benefit the FLDS members. Very recently, the first house was sold from this trust to an ex-FLDS member. The following link has information about the dissolution of the UEP, now the UEP Trust, and how the loyal FLDS members still living on UEP owned property in these towns are handling these changes. The link is http://www.religionnewsblog.com/20324/flds-20.

The leader of the FLDS denomination is the "prophet." This leader receives prophecies from God as to how, what, why and when changes or events in the FLDS faith take place. To the faithful FLDS, the prophet is the most powerful man in the world and God's only true representative on earth. The FLDS faithful believe everything the prophet says is God's word. The leader of the FLDS family is the husband, or the "priesthood" head. This sect believes wives should be in "perfect obedience" to their husbands to remain "in harmony" with him. If wives are not in perfect obedience and harmony with their husbands, they risk their salvation and can be doomed to hell. This system of male prophet as leader of the denomination and husband/priesthood head as leader of the family has caused many men to become power-hungry, terrorists.

In the FLDS sect, the highest number of recounted, detailed abuses stem from the consecutive periods of two specific FLDS prophets, a father and son. Rulon Jeffs became the FLDS prophet in 1986. During the 1990's, as Rulon Jeffs' health deteriorated, his son Warren Jeffs assumed the role of religious leader for the FLDS. Upon the elder Jeffs' death in 2002, Warren Jeffs proclaimed himself the new FLDS prophet. At the time of his death, the Associated Press reported Rulon Jeffs was rumored to have between 19 and 75 wives and dozens of children. In her book Escape, Carolyn Jessop writes after the death of Rulon Jeffs, Warren Jeffs married his father's wives. (I had to think really hard about this one. So the younger Jeffs married his "Mothers" and became their husband, instead of their son. He also would have become step-father to all of his half-brothers and half-sisters.)

Under Warren Jeffs' control, the FLDS communities in Hildale and Colorado City became even more isolated. All televisions, movies, most music, computers, internet access, magazines, books and newspapers are banned. Historically, within the FLDS, the education of children has been allowed and banned. During some periods, the FLDS ran their own private schools. During other periods, the FLDS ran the public schools in Colorado City and Hildale. A majority of the FLDS children were allowed to complete the 6th grade. One of Warren Jeffs' last commands as prophet was to remove all children from public schools. After issuing this command, public school attendance in the Hildale and Colorado City communities fell by 80%. As of this writing, these children are still not attending school. Comments from FLDS members say these children are being home-schooled. Information coming from recent sect escapees and different blogs is children are not being educated. On the CNN show, Larry King Live, a reporter was being interviewed by King about being present as a teenage girl safely escaped from the FLDS, the reporter said, "I asked her, who is the President of the United States? She didn't know, she thought it was Jeffs."

Recently, a book drive has started to try to rebuild the library of books in Hildale and Colorado City which disappeared under Warren Jeffs' rule. Read the complete story at http://www.religionnewsblog.com/20395/flds-21. A non-FLDS member is going to open a room in her home as a lending library. In the FLDS sect, books are still forbidden. And, any non-FLDS person is considered "wicked." Although this is a noble effort, I don't believe any of the FLDS faithful will support a new library until the ban on books is lifted and a library opened in a place not considered wicked by the FLDS members.

As with the banning of books, Warren Jeffs governed all aspects of life for his FLDS followers. He excommunicated many, many FLDS men who threatened his power or opposed him. With little notice, these men were commanded to immediately leave their families, home, and community. Their wives and children were then "re-assigned," meaning married to other FLDS men, still in Jeffs' favor. In these "re-assigned" marriages, an FLDS man marrying one of his step-daughters has become a common practice. Marrying one's step-daughter is a terrible abuse of the care and control concept expected of parents. Here is a link to a video of one of these stories, as an escaped 15-year-old girl talks about the difficulty of learning to call her sister, her mother - her third mother: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SGU2MVUuwA.

Carolyn Jessop writes of several of Warren Jeffs' decrees. He sanctioned the slaughtering of farm animals by inhumane means in front of young children. He publicly abused one of his wives to illustrate "perfect obedience" of a wife to her husband. He ordered all dogs in the community killed. (Some were saved by being smuggled to shelters.) He banned the color red from any article of clothing. He banned the word "fun." He required all followers to wear wrist to ankle white "blessed garments," essentially long underwear, at all times. This link is a CNN interview of an ex-FLDS woman recounting Jeffs' abuses including that of a 2nd grade boy in front of an FLDS teenage audience: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0RV4fKtKp0&feature=related.

Warren Jeffs made hypnotic, trance-like instructional audio tapes for his followers. This link is to one of Jeffs' instructional audios for young children concerning plural marriage. In this audio, you will hear, "Boys must leave girls alone and girls must leave boys alone....By keeping sweet...obeying the prophet...they will one day have a world of their own." To listen to this audio, click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbudqrmFSDs&feature=related.

As many teenage boys reached puberty, the pre-requisite for marriage in the FLDS, they are being excommunicated from the FLDS community. Uneducated, deprived of social skills, and scared to death of an outside world they only know as "wicked," these boys are thrown out. They are ordered to leave the only family and home they have ever known. Families are commanded to disown these boys, as if they never existed. The "Lost Boys" are a group of more than 400 young men, some as young as 12, who were driven out of the community and left on the side of the road. Many times, the only possessions these boys have when they leave are the clothes they are wearing. Each of these exiled boys was told they committed some "sin" like listening to rock music. In actuality, these boys were removed because they were considered competition as husbands for the younger women in the community. The older FLDS men, including both Rulon and Warren Jeffs, wanted the younger women as wives. The FLDS faithful believe a man must have at least three wives for salvation. They also believe the more wives and children a man has, the greater his heavenly reward. This link is to an excellent September 2007 CNN/Time story about these exiled teenagers: http://www.rickross.com/reference/polygamy/polygamy720.html.

This week, Representative Lorie Fowlke, R-Orem, introduced a bill in Utah making child abandonment a third class felony. This bill would hold parents and sect leaders responsible for abandoning under-age children. This is the second year Fowlke has introduced such a bill. You can read one of the full reports here: http://www.religionnewsblog.com/20450/flds-lost-boys.

Last year a shelter for those teenagers who were kicked out of or escaped from the FLDS sect began operating in St. George, UT. This shelter is requesting more money this year from the State of Utah. This January 26, 2008 article concerns this home and the recent request for additional funding. The complete article is here: http://www.rickross.com/reference/polygamy/polygamy762.html.

A group of the "Lost Boys" sued the UEP Trust for damages caused by their excommunication from the FLDS community. As part of the settlement in this suit, the UEP Trust, under the authority of the State of Utah, has committed to spend up to $50,000 a year on tuition and educational expenses for those young men and women who were thrown out of or escaped from the FLDS community. The most recent update (January 15, 2008) of this story can be found here: http://www.rickross.com/reference/polygamy/polygamy759.html.

To be continued in Part 2.

Robust Winter Soup

Albeit a little late, winter has finally arrived in Northern California. In the "Valley of the San Joaquin," rain has come down for the past three weeks. Or, at least it seems as if rain has fallen every day for the past three weeks. Cold, rainy days make me want to stay indoors with a warm fire, a good book and a hot bowl of soup.

Lately, probably due to our weather and the Colonel being diagnosed with whooping cough several weeks ago (I'm still not really sure about that diagnosis), I have been making a lot of different kinds of soup. Over the years, I have developed and written my own recipes for the soups we like the most. These recipes started from a recipe book, or web-site. As I made changes to the recipes I would mark through or add ingredients and different cooking instructions. Some of those original recipe pages were so written over, marked out, and re-written, at times I had trouble deciphering my own changes. When I felt the soup was finally perfect, I would write and print my own recipe. In the past several weeks I have made Butternut Squash Soup, 15 Bean Soup, Potato Soup, "Soup Beans" and Wild Rice Chicken Soup.

Several years ago during a winter business trip to Northern Minnesota I found Wild Rice Chicken Soup. This soup was listed on the menu of almost every restaurant I visited in this part of the country. Most restaurants listed a cup of this soup as an appetizer and a bowl as a meal. Being hardy and robust, I have always thought this soup was more of a meal than an appetizer.

Until a few days ago, I had not made this soup since last winter. Actually, I think I forgot about it until I found it in my recipe book. After seeing this recipe and remembering how much I enjoyed this soup, I had to make it. As usual with different recipes I have not eaten for awhile, this soup was even more delicious than I had remembered it. I know many of you in different parts of the country are currently experiencing extreme cold weather. This soup is a great winter meal. So today, I thought I would share my recipe for Wild Rice Chicken Soup.

Ingredients:
Five slices bacon
Five frozen chicken tenders (or about 2 cups of cooked white chicken meat)
1 cup uncooked wild rice
1 can sliced mushrooms (optional - I like them, you may not)
1 pint heavy cream (or half and half)
4 chicken bouillon cubes
3 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 can cream of mushroom soup
5 cups water
1 celery stalk
one-half teaspoon salt

Cook the bacon until crispy, set aside and lightly brown the chicken tenders in the remaining bacon grease.

While bacon and chicken are cooking, in a large soup pot combine wild rice, cream, bouillon, butter, cream of mushroom soup, water and salt. Drain the mushrooms, and finely chop the celery and add both to the soup pot. Heat the soup mixture slowly to a slow boil, stirring frequently to mix ingredients and to ensure the mixture doesn't burn.

Crumble the bacon and pull apart or cut the chicken tenders to edible size and add both to pot. While the browned chicken is hot, I utilize two forks to pull it apart into smaller pieces. I like the look of the pulled apart chicken in soup better than cut or cubed chicken, but it doesn't matter, suit your own tastes.

After all ingredients are added to the soup pot, bring to a good boil, still stirring frequently for 10-15 minutes. Turn the heat down and simmer for 2.5-3.0 hours. Stir the pot as often as needed to make sure your soup isn't burning or sticking to the bottom of your pot. I usually stir it every 30 minutes. I set my gas burner on the lowest setting and use a non-stick soup pot. Stir as needed for your stove and pot to keep soup from burning.

Serve hot with your favorite crackers or bread. I think I like this soup best with cornbread, but it is also great with oyster crackers, saltines or Ritz.

If you have leftovers, refrigerate them. Although I could never wait a day to have my first bowl of this soup, the flavor is even better after it has been refrigerated overnight and re-heated.

I hope this soup warms you up during your cold, wintry January!

After you enjoy this Wild Rice Chicken Soup, please let me know what you think! I look forward to hearing/reading your comments.

Stay warm and eat well!

Voting in 2007

Living in a democracy, we are blessed with the right to vote for our government leaders. I take this privilege very seriously. Without a doubt, the upcoming election will be an historical event. Please exercise your right to vote. We are living in a very important time.

JFK's words may ring with more truth today than they did in 1963,
"Never before has man had such capacity to control his own environment, to end thirst and hunger, to conquer poverty and disease, to banish illiteracy and massive human misery. We have the power to make this the best generation of mankind or to make it the last."

More than 50% of my news coverage seems to involve review, more review and even more review of the primaries and upcoming presidential elections. Lately, almost all of the media coverage of the Democratic candidates concerns racism and sexism. Both Obama and Clinton have stated they do not want to be judged on the basis of race or gender but would like to earn our votes based on their political positions and the needs of our country.

This year, for the first time in our nation's history, a woman and an African-American are two of the most viable candidates to be President of the United States. Please don't overlook the inevitable irony of this situation. When our great country was founded, neither women nor African-Americans had the right to vote for any presidential candidate. So, how can I vote for the candidate who best represents my needs and wants from government and not consider the historical magnitude of this election?

The election of Clinton or Obama will not erase the wrongs of our country's past or change the inequalities of our history. No matter how much the media would like for me to believe otherwise, racism and sexism still exist in our current American society. (Dare I say racism and sexism still run rampant in certain arenas.)

I do not want to discount the continued existence of racism. I grew up in the "deep south." But, because I am female, I am likely more apt to see current gender bias than racial bias.

Just yesterday, I saw a report covering the inequalities of men and women applying to and being accepted into college programs. To sum it up, at many colleges men have a 10% higher chance of being accepted, literally "bumping" women with stronger entrance applications. At colleges where an applicant is accepted solely on the strength of their application, women make up 60% of the incoming freshmen. To ensure equal numbers of men and women, most colleges are accepting lower qualified men. From my vantage point, this looks an awful lot like affirmative action for men. By foregoing women with better applications to accept men in order to keep their gender enrollments equal, these colleges are discriminating against women.

Truly, in a General Election, when given a choice between a woman or an African-American and a Republican "white guy", once the voting booth curtain is closed, I don't have any confidence a majority of our citizens won't vote for the "white guy" no matter what their political party affiliation is. I hope I am wrong. The privacy of the voting booth will really be the gauge of how far our country has come in its fight against sexism and racism. I pray the outcome will be better than my pessimistic attitude.

I don't know which would be more historical for our country, the election of an African-American or a female. The election of either would mean much more historically than just the election of another president. I am no political pundit. I am an American voter who does my level best to stay informed about the issues and the candidates. I have a sincere desire to vote for the candidate who best represents my wants and needs for our country. I am tired of voting for the lesser of "two weevils" (two evils).

I don't know for whom I will vote in the Primary or General Election. My main concerns are our economy(inflation, banking/mortgage debacle, etc.), our involvement in Iraq, affordable health care and global warming. I will vote for the candidate who best addresses these issues with reasonable and achievable answers.

And, as my final note...if you don't exercise your right as an American to vote, then please do not exercise your freedom of speech and complain about those in office. This election will be historical for many reasons. Make sure your vote is a part of this historical moment.

"Whoa, Dude! ROCK ON!"

Whoa Dude!

I am afraid I have OCD!

Who would believe a 40-something-year-old would develop an addiction to a video game? Better yet, who would believe I could develop an addiction to a video game? Yet, here I sit typing away, and trying to finish as quickly as possible. I am, well, itching to play Guitar Hero on my Wii.

How did I get here? The answer to this question is fairly simple, especially if you have been reading this blog. My little black dog, Drew, is quite geriatric and I have been struggling with her good days and bad days and what is best to do for my little 17+ year-old, four-legged companion.

The day I wrote my tribute to little Drewsie was a really tough day for me. Drew was not having a good day. Writing the Drew entry was one of the toughest writing jobs I have ever taken on. Katie, my 9-year-old buddy, was spending the day with us because she was still on holiday vacation from school. I was very emotional typing about Drew. I suppose the Colonel and Katie had enough of my typing and crying because they left me to go the mall.

I kept typing and wiping away the tears until I finished writing about Drew. Several hours passed before the Colonel and Katie returned home with shopping bags and boxes in tow. They left knowing I was extremely depressed about the situation with Drew. They wanted to do something to cheer me up. The shopping bags and boxes contained a new Wii, Wii accessories and the video game Guitar Hero III.

The Colonel and I, although quite well above the standard demographic for video gaming, are not completely naive to video games. Several years back, we went shopping for a new stove - which we needed - and came home with an XBox, and NO stove. The XBox now sits dejectedly in the TV cabinet collecting dust! Although, I must admit, the Spongebob Squarepants XBox game caused me to have calluses on my fingers as I battled through the levels of Bikini Bottom.

But, who hasn't heard of the Wii? Although I had played it a couple of times with my cousins and with Katie, I never really thought about getting one, or spending THAT kind of money for the latest in video gaming. Since Katie and the Colonel had taken the time, energy and money to try to cheer me up, the least I could do to show my appreciation was to hook up the Wii, put in the Guitar Hero game, and try my skills.

Guitar Hero III and the Wii are impressive. The smallish white guitar has five "notes" (buttons) on the fret bar and a strum "bar" where you would normally strum the strings on a regular guitar. The goal of the game is to watch the musical colored "notes" coming down the on-screen fret bar and strum them in the correct sequence and time.

I think this game contains at least 70 songs you can choose to play. Each of the songs are by the original artist. Listed on the screen is the original artist and date the song was made famous. I am not familiar with some of the newer songs and artists. I am very familiar with many of the songs and bands. Songs by Pat Benatar, ZZ Top, Rolling Stones, Santana, Charlie Daniels and many others are all tunes with which I am familiar.

As you hold the fret notes down and strum the guitar, if you are playing the correct notes in the right time, you hear the music of the song and your score goes up. If you miss a note or notes, the guitar makes an off-tune sound, you don't get to hear the music and your score goes down. Miss enough notes and you get booed off the stage. Play enough notes correctly, "YOU ROCK," and proceed to the next song or level.

The game has four levels, easy, medium, hard and expert. Me, with my superb video game prowess, I've almost made it through the medium skill level. But, there is more to this story...and this game.

For our little family, one Wii guitar was not enough. So, our household has two Wii guitars so the Colonel and I, or Katie and I, can "jam" together. The Career Co-op setting allows you to play two guitars together to try to work through the game levels. With two guitars, one plays guitar or lead, and the other plays bass or rhythm. This section is great because with two guitars, you get to hear more of the music as you play the correct notes and work your way through the skill levels. With the aid of Katie's young, nimble guitar playing fingers in the Career Co-Op setting, we have now made it through the medium skill level and are ready to move on to the hard skill level.

Whoo! I thought the medium skill level was really difficult. I may need to hang out in the medium level for awhile and play all of the songs. I am not much looking forward to the hard skill level.

Hhhmmm...there's that itch again...guess I need to end this...and *wink* get some things done around the house...ROCK ON, DUDE!

September, 1990

In 1990, two life-changing events occurred. In September, I chose to leave the employment of one American Auto Company to go to work for another American Auto Company. And in November, I adopted a little 2 pound, 7-week-old, black Schnauzer-Shiatsu mix who I named Drewdenia D. Dogg, aka "Drew."

As many of you know, I left the employment of the 2nd American Auto Company in February of 2007. And, in November, Drew turned 17-years-old.

I recently read an article stating dogs could be considered geriatric when they are 7-years-old. If this article is true, my Drewsie is now on her third period of "geriatricity."

When I adopted Drew, she was so small, she would fit in the palm of my hand. The lady I got her from said she was weaned. She was not weaned. She was flea-infested. I bought puppy flea shampoo and got rid of her fleas, but after about 8 or 9 hours of her not eating soft puppy food, or anything else I tried to feed her, I realized if I could not get her to eat soon, she would likely not survive. Because of the flea infestation and the now absence of fleas, I did not want to return her to her mother dog to be fed. I went to the local pet store and bought puppy formula, at $6 a pint, and a little bottle. I returned home, to nurse Drew with the puppy formula and wean her to real food.

Soon after she was weaned, I tried to house-break her. I remember standing outside in the rain wearing only a robe and house shoes for what seemed like hours, as this tiny, little black dog did nothing she was supposed to do outdoors, but instead chewed on a twig.

It's hard for me to believe this was more than 17-years ago. It seems as if it were only yesterday. This little dog has relocated with me four times. The last time we moved, Drew and I flew first class from Charleston, SC to Sacramento, CA. It was the first time I had ever flown first class and the only time Drew has ever flown on an airplane. I wanted to be able to keep Drew with me in the cabin of the plane, and the only way I could figure out to do this comfortably, was to fly us both in the first class cabin. Although, I had a Sherpa bag for Drew to travel in, she spent most of this flight asleep in my lap.

Today, I wish Drew could talk, so she could tell me what is hurting her. Most times, I am glad she doesn't talk - she has lived with me way too long and knows far too many of my secrets. There was a time during Drew's young life when she was my beer-drinking buddy. She had her own "beer-bowl." Another time, when Drew was young, I thought she needed a companion, play-mate pup. So, I got a second dog, Annabel, to keep Drew company while I worked and went to night school. (For more information on Annabel, please see the first blog written here entitled "Ellen and Iggy.") Adding Annabel to my little family was not successful. As a matter if fact, it was pretty disastrous.

At least once in the last 17-years, I went through a pretty difficult emotional time. I remember nights when I had no reason to go home, except I had to feed Drew and let her out. I always went home. Drew was always there, waiting on me to come home. She was always so over-joyed to see me. She would greet me by hopping around, wagging her tail and then running as fast as she could in circles around me. She loved me unconditionally.

After work one afternoon, while Drew and I were living in Charleston, I was sitting on my patio in a lawn chair with Drew sitting beside me. I heard an airplane. It was a very different sounding plane and the noise was as if it was going to fly right into the top of my house. I recall looking up and seeing a Stealth Bomber flying very low. Having no-one else available to mark this momentous occasion, I reached over, patted Drew on the head, pointed to the sky and said, "Drew, a Stealth Bomber just flew over our house."

Another time, in this same back-yard, I was practicing golf using a wedge, flight-restricted golf balls and a bucket. I lined up four balls across the ground. I hit the first ball, stepped forward, lined up and hit the second ball. I never dreamed Drew would chase these little balls with a long, red tails, but she did. When I hit the second ball, Drew had chased the first ball and was standing directly in my line of fire. The ball caught her on the side of her head with a loud thwack. Drew yelped and ran toward the back door of the house. I dropped the club and ran after her. I left the club, balls and bucket in the backyard that night, and spent almost the entire night making sure my little dog was okay. I felt so stupid and guilty. I should have known better. From that day forward, every time I pick up a golf club, baseball bat or even a fly swatter, Drew immediately leaves the area around me.

For most of her life, Drew was a real barker. Whether it was the UPS truck coming or a leaf blowing down the street in front of our house, Drew barked and barked and barked some more. This made her a great guard dog...except you never knew exactly what she heard, or why she was barking. She lost her hearing several years ago, and since then, she doesn't bark much. She now barks when she sees the UPS truck. I always thought she hated the sound of the UPS truck, but, I guess I was wrong. She doesn't like looking at the UPS truck either. The up-side of her hearing loss, Drew, the Colonel and I are each now pretty skilled at "human-dog" sign language. And, I think the Colonel possesses the skills of Dr. Doolittle seeming to hear Drew say she's hungry or wants to go for a walk, ALL of the time!

Drew has been a true constant in my life for the past 17+ years. For almost 12 years, the Colonel and Drew have been "best buddies." Drew has been a great dog and a very loyal companion to both of us. During the last 18 months of working for the 2nd American Car Company, I was away from home more often than not. During this time, Drew much became the Colonel's dog. But, whenever I returned home, she still greeted me with that same "happy hopping," tail wagging hello as she has done for most of her life.

Earlier this year, while we were in the middle of remodeling our home, the frailty of Drew's age became very clear. For the first time in her long life she became very, very ill. She spent a week in the doggie intensive care unit of our vet. We went to see her every day and it didn't seem she was getting any better. On Friday, after the re-modelers had left for the week-end, we went to the vet to pick up Drew. We didn't want her to pass away in a cage at the vet's office with IVs stuck in her little paw, and a "lampshade" around her neck. We brought her home to pass away peacefully where she knew she was loved. Although we tried, we could not get her to eat anything for almost two days. She did drink a bit of water. Finally, late Sunday afternoon, she ate some chicken from my hand. Once she started eating again, she got stronger. Although I don't think she ever fully recovered from this illness, she has had many, many good days since then.

Still remodeling, and dealing with a recovering Drew, daily, we moved "Drew's chair" from room to room, inside and outside, to the garage and onto the patio. Sometimes, during our remodel, the Colonel and I had to sit or sleep on the floor in various rooms, but not Drewsie, she always had her leather chair in the room with us, no matter where we were.

The Colonel and I spend a good portion of our waking hours looking after our little, elderly, four-legged friend. Caring for a geriatric, cranky, little-old-lady dog can be difficult. The vet bills and medication are outrageously expensive. But, we would exhaust our last efforts and spend our last dime to insure she is comfortable and not suffering. It's the least we can do for her years of loyalty and companionship.

I never thought the end of her life would be like this. I always thought, or maybe I hoped and prayed, she would go to sleep and not wake up. That is how I thought I would find her. I never dreamed I would have to make decisions about her care, or, what's best for her. But, here I am. Here we are.

Today, she is suffering. Today, as I have been several times in the past several months, I am ready to let her go. We promised we would never let her suffer. As long as she had "quality of life," she would have great care and a good, warm home where she is loved dearly. Recently, I think she is having more bad days than good ones. I am really doubting she has much "quality of life" anymore.

She is now snoring softly, sleeping in "her chair" beside me. She was having a really hard time this morning so we gave her a dose of pain-killer to help her rest for awhile. We have done this before, and after she gets several hours of good rest, she seems to get up hungry, well-rested and a little more able to get around. I hope this is true today.

This is my tribute to little Drew and my way of saying thanks for her many, many years of unconditional love. My little friend, I hope I have been worthy of your love.