Yesterday I watched the interview of an eighth-grade girl in tears as she admitted that she was afraid to go to school. She feared that one day she would go into school and never come back out. Sometime yesterday, that is exactly what happened to a young man in Colorado.

In the half-light of morning
She struggles to lift the dark curtain
From her eyes
Daylight muffled by a pillow of clouds …

Too often, when they become adolescents, our children feel they must decide on what they want to be when they grow up. Adolescence is just too young for somebody to decide what they will do for a lifetime. Setting goals and self-imposing rules at such a young age can hinder a young person's growth more than help it.

Cats have a reputation for being aloof. Still, when you rescue a cat, you likely expect that it wil become your companion. Sometimes that doesn't work out as you intended. You spend weeks or even months trying to coax your cat out from under the couch, the bed, or out of the closet without success.

We lost our beautiful Airedale, Bailey two years ago. Bailey was a big dog. He was an Oorang, the kind of Airedale that some breeders say are ruining the breed because of their size.