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PHOTO: Nate's rescue, Sol, takes his job of helping children seriously with a wagging tale

Nate named his Mexican-mutt rescue "Sol", because the "sun" of their love rises and sets on each others "souls".
 
Sol's mother was homeless, hungry and pregnant when she sought refuge in a Colima garden.  Hoping that she had found a safe place, she dug a hole under a wall and delivered nine bouncing babies.
 
As fate would have it, the family that owned the garden fell in love with her.  They took her in, named her Negra and once weaned, brought the puppies to the Baja Dog Rescue.  (http://bajadogslapaz.org).  Their kindness saved Negra and her puppies from a hard life of worms, mange, starvation, or injuries from cars, people and other dogs. 
 
At the time, Nate, a music therapist who works with children with special needs, lived 3,000 miles away, and was searching for a dog to work at his side, one that would be beneficial for his clients. 
 
"Dogs have a way of supporting people that nothing else can," said Nate. "When I saw Sol's picture online I knew he was my partner. He is an absolute dream of a dog. He's calm, gentle and patient with a beautiful spirit of love and kindness. He accompanies me to children's sessions because he loves them and has an amazing ability to bring joy, safety, and comfort to them. One of 'our' clients arrived extremely shy but immediately upon seeing Sol, smiled and opened up. She and Sol spent the entire session snuggled up together. 
 
Sol is naturally gentle, compassionate, quiet, and patient with the special needs children; but he has all the goofiness and joy of a puppy to make everyone laugh." 
 
Nate's furry companion enjoys hiking, kayaking, camping and daily walks to the ocean with his best buddy. 
 
"I am lucky and forever grateful having such a special charismatic dog to share this beautiful world," said Nate. "We have forests, mountains, oceans and streams to play in. He's introduced me to people that I would never have met. He's my partner, best friend, and  companion that I love with all my heart. He has gone from homeless to healer of the heart and I can't imagine life without him."
 
Sol's siblings were adopted from Seattle's airport into neighboring states and Canada! Last month, Nate and Sol joined everyone in Seattle to celebrate the pups' first birthday. It was a wild party! The dogs remembered each other and played into exhaustion!

When 95-year-old Tips 'n' Tales reader Bea was a child, her mother did not allow cats in the house.  Bea loved kitties so at night time, she let her favorite cat, Topsy, inside, and hid it in her bed. Her bed's mattress had a hole, and the kitty knew to crawl into it and hide until Bea's mother did a final check of the room for a cat. Her suspicious mother looked under the bed, never realizing that Topsy had out smarted her. After her mother left, Topsy emerged and snuggled with Bea.  Where there is a loving heart - there is a way!
 
Is your pet feeling sickly?  Pet food activist Susan Thixton said, "After the recent hurricanes, many areas went without power. We conservatively estimated that grocery stores lost 15 million pounds of meat and groceries.  Guess where all that spoiled meat goes? To a landfill? No. The spoiled meat is purchased by meat salvage companies and is converted into your pets' food.
 
Spoiled frozen foods and dairy products will be diverted to livestock feed. Sometimes the paper, plastic and Styrofoam packaging will be removed, sometimes it won't. When your pet refuses to eat a food, or appears ill or vomits always question the food they are eating."  Information: http://truthaboutpetfood.com/harvey-irma-and-pet-food/

Mary Ellen's Silver Persians swam their way into readers and viewer's hearts! They have appeared in International magazines and newspapers around the world. (France, England, Canada, China, Germany, USA, etc.)

Also, several National and International TV shows featured the swimming felines teaching pet-water-safety. And their furry faces appeared on a line of shirts.

• Pet Tips 'n' Tales, has appeared in Oregon's "The Cottage Grove Sentinel" newspaper for 15 years.

Mary Ellen would love to publish her articles in your local newspapers. Just ask.