Library Happenings

Henning School

   In the summer of 2012, the best dog in the whole world was born in Vining. Of course, I may be a little biased because that dog happens to belong to my son-in-law and daughter.  Being the first year that we had lived in the area, we were anxious to go to Vining for Watermelon Day, which is always held on the third Saturday of August and guaranteed to be a great time.  

  My daughter, Stephanie, had just begun dating my now son-in-law Tanner and they had their own path they were taking down Vinings roads.  On one of those city roads under a beautiful shade tree someone had a batch of puppies to sell for $25 as a 4-H project. Being a couple of young kids, they had $25 when they started the day, but Tanner had just bought Stephanie a $1 bag of donuts. They offered the nice people $24 for one of the pups as that is literally all they had in their pockets. Of course everyone knows how cute puppies are and when you are young and you don’t have children, why wouldn’t you get a cute little puppy?  

Here is how the story begins of the best dog in the world named Lady. From the very beginning, this pup would sit off to one side on a particular hip, just like a lady would sit to ride a horse and that is how she got her name Lady.  

Lady is part Black Lab and part German Shepherd.  She is a fairly good sized dog and quite strong.  Tanner doted on her as a pup.  Lady slept with him,  rode in the front between the bucket seats of his minivan to everywhere that Tanner would go, she chased endless softballs, lazed in the warm summer breezes by Grandma Kay’s cabin, and where you would be, so would be Lady.  

Lady has shared her life with other dogs, Cooper (a blue heeler/ border collie mix), Cash (a St. Bernard), DeNali (a German Shepherd), and Nellie (a collie). She has also shared her life with two cats, Sitka and Kenai.  She has lived at Grandma Kay’s cabin, a Crookston Apartment, a Crookston home, in Fargo at Tanner’s mom’s house, with my family three times, and now she is living out her last years on our farm.  Her dog house is actually an old icehouse that Tanner converted with a dog door and a warm heater that keeps her at 60 degrees throughout the fall and winter months. She has 10 acres to roam and can oftentimes be seen from Highway 210 chasing the tractor or the lawn mower. She lives to catch pocket gophers and rabbits and can never have enough softballs or sticks thrown for her. She is a wonderful watchdog.

As we watch Lady age, we get a big lump in our throats, as well as an ache in our hearts and we know we need to slow our pace down for her.  I know that our family is truly blessed by the love of this dog and what a true Lady she is.  

Our featured book this week is “Everything for a Dog” written by Ann M. Martin. 

The back jacket cover reads, “Bone and his sister Squirrel, are stray dogs born in a shed.  Left motherless as puppies, the two dogs survive together for a while, but are soon wrenched apart, and Bone must now go on, alone.  Charlie is a boy who has suffered a terrible loss.  And, as he’s healing with the help of his dog, another tragedy occurs. 

“All Henry has wanted is a dog of his own, and now that his best friend has moved away, his parents still won’t let him. Bone, Charlie, and Henry live very different lives, but their stories connect in surprising ways. Award-winning author Ann M. Martin has written a powerful, heartfelt novel that’s perfect for anyone who has ever longed for a dog or loved one.”

We would love to hear your dog stories, come up to the Henning Public LIbrary and share them with us!  We are open on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons from 3:30-5:30 p.m. following the school calendar.