Wow! The Bahamas Humane Society really pulled out the stops and put on a wonderful day with the dogs!

The event took place at the Botanic Gardens and kicked off at 11:00 in the morning. There were countless food stalls: Pizza & Patties, Jerk (delicious and spicy), conch Fritters (loaded with conch), hamburgers and hot dogs (cooked in the Rotary mobile Kitchen van) and an exotic stall manned by the Sheraton Hotel. The Bahamas Humane Society had a delicious bake and bring stall of donated goodies brought by various supporters and board members…Chocolate cup cakes, ginger bread puppies, brownies, muffins, cookies and more…..there was cotton candy & popcorn, candies could be found at Mortimer’s candy stall and at the German Candy stall….Calories galore!!!! Rotary manned a bar, fully loaded and of course there were all sorts of soft drinks...

Sometimes there are lots of different things to say about various different topics and I think to myself,  'how can I possibly put all of these things in one article?'  Then I have to try and figure out what is the most important thing to discuss and what can afford to be left behind. Why I wonder, did it take me close to a year to figure out that time to time I could write an animal news, a bits and pieces article, touching more than one thing?

Who knows what touched me to suddenly be enlighten me, but it did and so here we go...

A few days ago somebody asked me what qualifies me to be the President of the Bahamas Humane Society. At first I was a bit taken aback. It seamed, on face value, a very forward question that bordered on being rude. After stammering for a few seconds, I gathered my wits, and then went into a lengthy, in fact, far too lengthy when I look back on the incident, dissertation of my “qualifications”.

I returned home from Rome in 1980 and ran the BHS office in the afternoons, I reinstated the Bahamas Humane Society ball “Evening of Elegance”, I was principal fund raiser for ARK, I have been on the BHS board for several years….I love animals, I own tons of pets, I have homed hundreds of animals, and so I babbled uncomfortably on, justifying myself to this alarmingly simple question, posed to me by somebody who was probably wearing diapers when I first came home and worked the office of the Bahamas Humane Society...

It’s not easy being a dog and some times even harder in the Out Islands.

There is a very a very dynamic group called Pet Pals in Eleuthera are trying their best to help. It is a battle against time. Every day there are more and more unwanted puppies and kittens born into hopeless situations. There are instances where the dogs are poisoned because they are being a “pest’ which means doing what comes naturally, barking, chasing chickens, or chewing up stuff...

A few days ago our sweet wriggly black Labrador ,  “Buddy” celebrated his 1^st birthday. Belonging to a crazy family like ours, Buddy had a Birthday party! Oh yes! I see the raised eyebrows now! Is she nuts? Why he is “just” a dog! With all the problems in this world, remembering a dogs birthday! Well, I never!

So, I figured, precisely, with all the problems and horrors in this world; we need to come down to basics and celebrate the simpler things in life, the sweet and happy things in life……..like…..Buddy’s 1^st Birthday...