The claws come out, but not maliciously. Nothing will ruin your tights faster than a sweet, unassuming pet claw.

Animal Control. It’s kind of the “third side” of animal and pet rescue. I didn’t know very much about it, except a thin memory from over a decade ago when I interned with the rescue group my family volunteered with. It was hazy and not exactly positive, so I wasn’t sure what I was really getting in to when I asked if I could go on a ridealong with a Hall County Animal Control officer.

You’ve probably heard the Native American story that a “red bird” or cardinal is a spirit of a loved one visiting you. I had always heard that dragonflies are visitors from the other side.

​I promise I’m not a bad person. I just make mistakes… a lot of mistakes. I’ve made poor choices. Ran with the wrong crowd. Gotten my heart broken and been let down. I hate to say it, but old habits die hard, and I’m….

​There’s nothing like some pure Americana activity on the July 4th holiday. I’m pretty sure fireworks have become required for this holiday. While the sparkly fire booms can be pretty and magical, they can also be misery-inducing, especially for combat veterans or a pet that thinks the apocalypse is finally dawning.

Every morning it starts with sweet purring. In the deep darkness of my room it starts as a gentle and delicate lulling, but intensifies in to a full-fledge roar, as if someone had started a cat-themed, completely upgraded monster truck on the pillow to my left.

After spending so much of my life curious about the tiny dogs with alien faces, here I was in an outdoor pen, in the middle of June, looking for a dog that could encompass all of my lifetime experiences into one tiny package.

Somehow, I didn’t ruin my rescue dog’s first trip to a sidewalk café even though I had to dislodge an entire scrambled egg from her throat.