Happy Tails/Tales (Ten Things of Thankful)

We have a very, very big thankful this week. 

Yes, Christmas, and gratitude to our Savior is very important.  Yes, i am very, very thankful for family and gifts and decorations and everything else this lovely time of year brings.  We have a different thankful that i have to mention.

This past week, Sweetie contacted an old friend of his in a small town about an hour and a half from here.  This friend runs a local shop and knows tons of people.  Sweetie told him about the dog dilemma, and asked him to keep his ears open for anyone who would want a free-to-a-good-home Blue Heeler/Australian Cattle Dog.

The friend came through, he knew just the couple, and i am thankful for B and his many contacts.

The couple are former dairy farmers who have had Blue Heelers before, and know just how to train them, and i'm grateful because it means they know what they are in for. 

Sweetie drove there, and i was grateful for the chance to sit down after taking care of a client who had four loads of laundry for me to fold.

The client had lost an elderly dog a couple of months ago,  so let us all of the dog's equipment, and i am glad to be able to pass these things on.

The dog behaved well on the drive down, she didn't mess in the Land Yacht or tear anything up or bark and whine.

When we got there, she loved them, and it was love at first sight on their part.  They like it that she jumps on them, which i had been trying and just starting to succeed at training her not to do!

Sweetie and i had earned just enough money on the day we had to travel to deliver the dog to pay for the gas and for a small meal at a local eatery.  They had a very good salad, and Sweetie was impressed with the hamburger poboy.

We got to enjoy a visit with B, and see his store.

The drive home in the twilight was lovely, and the whole journey was safe, always a plus.

The library is now dog free, the cats are thrilled, and we are not having to arrange our lives around coming home to walk a dog, which we are not set up to do.

All in all, we are very thankful that this lovely dog has a home with farm people for whom she will be a spoiled only dog, allowed to chase squirrels and raccoons to her heart's content.

Bonus gratitudes:  today i go to Grandma and Grandpa's house to prepare for Christmas, and i have all of our gifts ready.

There are many big and small things to be thankful for every day.  Write up your own list (it doesn't have to be ten) and post it, linking up to Ten Things of Thankful, where Ms. Josie Two Shoes is our delightful host. 

Today is:

Birthday of the Queen Silvia -- Sweden (an official flag day)

Children's Day -- South Sudan; Sudan

Day of Acca Larentia -- Ancient Rome, Republic and Empire (earth goddess and protectress who raised Romulus and Remus)

Festivus -- For the Rest of Us!  (The holiday introduced on the episode of Seinfeld that aired 12/18/97; have some meatloaf, decorate with an unadorned aluminum pole, have a "Feats of Strength" contest and an "Airing of Grievances"!)

Humanlight Celebration -- celebration of tolerance, compassion, empathy, honesty, free inquiry, reason, and rationality   

Icelandic Yuletide Lad of the Day, Ketkrokur -- Meat-hook, who will lower a hook down the chimney and snatch a bit of meat if he can, especially if you are cooking lamb for St. Porlakur(Thorlac)

Igler Bergweihnacht -- Igls, Austria (charming nativity parade starring the children of this small town near Innsbruck)

Learn Metric Day -- US (passage of the Metric Conversion Act of 1875)

Mouse-Marketing Day -- Fairy Calendar

National Pfefferneusse Day -- don't forget the Puderzucker!

Noche de Rabanos (Night of the Radishes) -- Oaxaca, Mexico (part of the lead up to Christmas, bring out your best carved radish!)

Popcorn Popping Day -- so you can string it on the tree, of course

Porlaksmessa, Feast of St. Thorlaker/Thorlac -- Iceland (Patron saint, though never officially recognized by the Holy See)

Roots Day -- as you gather with family during the season, don't forget to sit with elder relatives and learn about your family's past

Secret of the Unhewn Stone -- Celtic Calendar (Only day on their calendar not governed by a tree month)

St. John of Kanti's Day (Patron of Lithuania, Poland)

St. Servulus' Day (Patron of the disabled/physically challenged; against paralysis)

St. Victoria's Day (Patron of Anticoli Corrado, Italy)

Tenno Tanjobi -- Japan (Birthday of Emperor Akihito, national holiday observed as a day of rest.)

Two Days To Go Day

Victory Day -- Egypt (a/k/a Suez Victory Day)

Anniversary Today:

Establishment of the US Federal Reserve System, 1913

Birthdays Today:

Corey Haim, 1971

Carla Bruni, 1967

Eddie Vedder, 1964

Carol Ann Duffy, 1955

Susan Lucci, 1946

Harry Shearer, 1943

Akihito, 1933

Robert Bly, 1926

Gerald O'Loughlin, 1921

Jose Greco, 1918

Madame C.J. Walker, 1867

Connie Mack, 1862

Harriet Monroe, 1860

Joseph Smith, Jr., 1805

Debuting/Premiering Today:

Hoffmeyer's Legacy(Film; 1st with Keystone Kops), 1912

Today in History:

Byzantine-Arab Wars: Under the future Emperor Nicephorus Phocas, Byzantine troops stormed the city of Aleppo, recovering the tattered tunic of John the Baptist, 962

St Philip of Moscow martyred by Ivan the Terrible, 1569

Giovanni Cassini discovers Rhea, a satellite of Saturn, 1672

John Flamsteed observes Uranus without realizing it's undiscovered, 1690

The Continental Congress negotiates a war loan of $181,500 from France, 1776

Benedict Arnold court-martialed for improper conduct, 1779

"A Visit from St Nicholas" by C. Clement Moore is published in the Troy (NY) Sentinel (Now usually titled " 'Twas the Night Before Christmas"), 1823

The opera Hänsel und Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck is first performed, 1893

The first all-steel passenger railroad coach completed, in Altoona, Pa, 1907

The first hospital ship built to move wounded naval personnel is launched, 1919

Alice H Parker patents gas heating furnace, 1919

Discovery of the first modern coelacanth in South Africa, 1938

The transistor is first demonstrated at Bell Laboratories, 1947

Dedication of Tokyo Tower, the world's highest self-supporting iron tower, 1958

The North Tower of the World Trade Center in Manhattan, New York City is topped out at 1,368 feet (417 m), making it the tallest building in the world, 1970

A 6.5 magnitude earthquake strikes the Nicaraguan capital of Managua killing more than 10,000, 1972

The 16 survivors of the Andes flight disaster are rescued after 73 days, having survived by cannibalism, 1972

Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, lands at Edwards Air Force Base in California becoming the first aircraft to fly non-stop around the world without aerial or ground refueling, 1986

In a referendum, 88% of Slovenia's population vote for independence from Yugoslavia, 1990

An 8.1 magnitude earthquake hits Macquarie Island in the Southern Ocean, 2004

Volcanic activity alerts are issued in Chile and Argentina, in areas near the Copahue volcano, after it started to spew ash, 2012