~★~♥~♥~★~ El Morno! ♥~★~★~♥ ~
April 25

“Dogs are better than human beings because they know but do not tell.” Emily Dickinson

Happy Dyngus Day, also spelled Dingus Day by our Polish friends.

In Poland, Easter Monday is known as Wet Easter Monday, when boys try to drench girls with buckets of water, squirt guns, or whatever’s available. In some towns, they use twigs to switch the girls. The tradition has it that if a girl receives a drenching or switching, she will marry within the year. It seems that, in some Polish villages, you also celebrate Dyngus Day by loading up the family rooster and going from house to house asking for treats of drinks – kind of like trick or treating, but you must take along the family rooster. Why? I’m still wondering myself.

★~ Today in History:

♥~ 1928 – Buddy, the first seeing eye dog, was presented to Morris S. Frank on this day. Many seeing eye organizations and schools continue to offer specially trained dogs “…to enhance the independence, dignity, and self-confidence of blind people…”

♥~ 1970 – DJs around the U.S. played the new number one song, ABC, quite often, as The Jackson 5 reached the number one spot in pop music for two weeks. ABC was the second of four number one songs in a row for the group from Gary, IN.

♥ ~ 1990 –The Hubble Space Telescope was deployed from the space shuttle Discovery.

★~ Born Today:

♥~ 1940 – Al (Alfredo James) Pacino Academy Award-winning actor: Scent of a Woman [1992]; Scarface, Serpico, The Godfather, Dick Tracy; Tony Award-winning actor: Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie [1969], The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel [1977]

♥~ 1969 – Renée Zellweger actress: Bridget Jones’s Diary, Chicago, Me, Myself & Irene, One True Thing, Jerry Maguire, Cold Mountain

★~ Did You Know:

★~ The Guide Dog Foundation breeds its own dogs including Labrador Retrievers and Golden Retrievers.

★~It usually takes at least 24 months to train a group of guide dogs.

★~It costs them more than $25,000 to complete the training for only one guide dog

★~ To be a puppy walker, you must care for the puppy from when it is 7 weeks old to 12 or 14 months.

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April is National Autism Month and our canine friends are doing their part

Today we celebrate the first seeing-eye dog. However, because April is autistic awareness month, I also want to recognize service dogs that are trained to help children  with autism.

Service dogs are helping to enrich lives of autistic children, and provide services that not only help these children but also their families. For example, autistic children tend to wander, but can be stopped from going too far under the watchful idea of a service dog, who will nudge and herd them back in the direction of their family or caregiver. Service dogs are also trained to disrupt and redirect autistic children’s repetitive behaviors, such as flapping their hands in front of their faces. And who doesn’t feel better with a dog curled up next to them while they sleep? For autistic children the comforting touch of their service dog can help them sleep through the night. As they are trained to be watchful, in emergencies, a service dog can pull, nudge, or drag a child to safety.

Perhaps best of all, service dogs still do what dogs do best: offer companionship and love to children whose worlds are often harsh, loud and judgmental.

If you are interested in learning more, please follow this link: Autism Service Dogs of America.

Have a wonderful Monday! Drop me a comment if you have the time, because Odd loves company!

Kb