For the third time in eight years, I found myself sitting on the floor in the veterinarian’s office in tears, saying goodbye to one our dogs. I had to have our Yorkshire Terrier, Trixie, put down this morning. It was time, she was very old as dogs go, 17-year, one month and 18 days old…

A human being cannot find a better teacher than the average dog, who knows the full meaning to a natural life: ‘If you can’t screw it or eat it, then piss on it.’ Their definition of a door is that something he’ll find himself on the wrong side of every time. Finally, because of his…

If I could go back before my birth, I’d tell my folks these things: “Teach me to always tell the truth, even if it gets me or someone else in trouble.” “Make me say my prayers each and every night.” “Show me how to use my head before my fists.” “Remind me to smile a…

You’ve spilled your milk. But why? It spilled because there was milk in your glass. Had there been something else in the glass, you would have spilled that. After all, whatever is in the glass at the time is what will spill out when it gets tipped over (and it will happen.) Likewise, when your…

My wife’s logic is hard to argue with. Once, while we were shopping, I asked if we could buy a magazine rack. (Yes – sometimes we married men must ask our wives for permission to spend our own money.) I argued, “That way we won’t have them laying all around the house.” She simple said,…

Some years back, while lost in a hardware chain store, I overheard a man say to another, “They need to get this n—-r music off the radio.” He was talking about the in-store music system. At first I was embarrassed because like me, the guy is White, then I grew angry because the guy was…

In his native Lakota tongue, Jimmy’s last name ‘Tatonka’ meant ‘buffalo,’ but no one on the Rez ever called him that – at least not since the Kevin Costner movie ‘Dances with Wolves.’ Every time he turned around, someone called him ‘Dances with Wolves,’ or ‘Sung’manitu Tanka Ob Waci.’ Fortunately for Jimmy, no one but…

Year’s ago my wife and I went to the store to buy toilet paper. We stood there, debating with ourselves about what to get, fretting over the amount of money we didn’t have. Sounds funny, now, yet after much discussion and hemming-and-hawing, we got the most expensive four-roll of butt-wipe on the shelf. Our logic…

“When I was a kid, my mom told me that was my special purpose…” – Navin, ‘The Jerk.’ We all have purpose: to become a personal friend of God, after all He and Adam walked around Eden talking about dogs, women and apple pie recipes; treat everyone with the same love and respect we expect…

Anyone old enough has heard the question: “Where were you when Elvis died?” I clearly recall where I was and what I was doing. Other things remembered include Elvis Presley’s birth year: 1935, two years after my dad’s. Elvis sang about staying ‘off my blue suede shoes.’ Two years before Elvis died, we bought dad…