The best pretzels ever

My sister and mom and I made our yearly trek to the Amish horse sale in Troutman (near Statesville) on Friday night. As always, we looked around at the horse-related items in the buildings and the variety of buggies and wagons parked outside, then we went inside toe barns to look at the horses and mules. They ranged in size from about 100 pounds for miniature ponies to thousands of pounds for the draft horses. Prices ranged from $100 to more than $4,500 for a single animal while we were there. We also got our yearly Amish pretzels that are made out of some secret recipe yeast dough. They were, like always, fabulous?

This year went significantly better than last year, when I slid down the hill in a mixture of mud and horse manure. I won't tell the whole story on here because it involves a great deal of bad language, laughter and some poor Amish kid accidentally seeing a little more flesh than he bargained for. (It's a much funnier story now than it was a year ago.) It was also a lot warmer this year than it was two years ago when we were walking popsicles with scarves.

Anyway, it was a lot of fun and it's yet another chance for Graham to mock my agricultural upbringing, but I don't care... I got a pretzel out of the deal.

Think you might want to go? It's not over for another day or two. For more info., call the Iredell County Fairgrounds. To get there, get on I-77 and take the Old Mountain Road exit. We took I-40, so I can't give more specific directions from Shelby.

Lifelong to-do list item marked off

I've been saying since my junior year in college that I want to one day have a therapy dog.
As of last Monday, that hope has come true.
I went to the kennel club in Charlotte last Monday and had my dogs tested for both their Canine Good Citizen certification and their certification from Therapy Dogs International.
Now all I have to do is mail in their paperwork and registration fees.
I cannot even say how proud I am of my girls. Both Gracie and Lulu worked hard - during the test and during out weekly class leading up to the test.

An added bonus is that while I was at the kennel club, I got to see Tucker Summerville again.
Tucker and her therapy dog, Sam, are well-known in the therapy dog community and they volunteer at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte.
They also happen to be the subject of my final project in my photojournalism class - and thus are the reason why I wanted therapy dogs to begin with.
Tucker is a part-time nurse at the hospital and brings in Sam (and now her other dogs) to see patients on the pediatric ward. When I was there, there were children with cancer and bone diseases, along with youngsters with a variety of other illnesses. (I would love to show off the photographs, but I had to sign a waiver saying I wouldn't.) Some in pain; others facing boredom and loneliness, Sam brought an element into their day that's hard to explain. He'd nuzzle some, calm others and spread smiles wherever he went. He'd also snuggle next to worried moms in the bed and just be there with a kid in pain.
I think what he brought was normalcy from the world outside the hospital. And that was almost as valuable as prescribed medicines and IVs.
Although I didn't get to see Sam again, I did get to meet the two dogs who will be carrying on the Sheltie's tradition at the hospital, and it's easy to see that they're both going to be as great as Sam.

As for my dogs, the experience has been a great one - even before taking the test, Lulu and Gracie have been going to "therapy" on Tuesday evenings at Cleveland Pines. We've met a lot of really neat people - people we never would have met before - patients, families and staff alike.
We also get to see the difference it makes on a weekly basis. These people look forward to our visits and will greet us from wheelchairs in the hallway and beds in their rooms. They thank us every week for bringing the dogs by.
In any case, I can mark getting the dogs pet therapy certified off my life's to-do list and go on to the next big task. And who knows, maybe we can help more people along the way.