All Dogs Go To Heaven

Dogs are in all my stories. We recently adopted Tessa, the prettiest and sweetest blue merle border collie EVER. She has one blue eye, one amber eye, and a gimpy leg.

I’ve had a dog most of my life. One family dog growing up was Oscar, a red dachshund. Back then, dogs were free range from breakfast until suppertime. Oscar spent his days waddling around town from pool hall to playground with his best friend Cocoa. He hated the garbage truck and barked at its tires.

One July morning, while my siblings and I watched The Lucy Show, we heard the garbage truck, the barking, the brakes, and the bloodcurdling yelp of Oscar. We buried his crushed little body in the backyard, and our 90-year-old neighbor delivered a Mason jar of giant magnolia blossoms for his grave. Oscar was a frequent visitor to her front porch.

To this day, the fragrance of magnolias tugs me to a mound of dirt under the apple tree next to the white picket fence.

I hope dogs will be in heaven. Here on earth, dogs by their nature show us how to have a relationship with God. A dog says, "You pet me, you feed me, you shelter me, you love me, you must be God." A cat says, "You pet me, you feed me, you shelter me, you love me, I must be God." Sorry, cat lovers. Dogs want to please, spend time with, and learn from the Master. Cats want to be served and left alone. Which one are you?

(Concept from Cat and Dog Theology by Bob Sjogren and Gerald Robison.)

I know brothers who taught their dog to pee on their friends, and I know a dog named Bob Barker. LOL Tell me about your dog, but don’t make me cry! Your dog tale may end up in my next novel.

Peggy

MINI PEARLS

“The more boys I meet, the more I love my dog.”
Carrie Underwood – “More Boys I Meet”

“How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four.
Calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it a leg.” Abraham Lincoln

Anyone who is among the living has hope –
even a live dog is better off than a dead lion! Ecclesiastes 9:4 NIV

The Name Game

Peggy, Peggy, bo-beggy
Banana-fana fo-feggy
Fee-fi-mo-meggy
Peggy!

I've never cared much for my name. Peggy. It doesn't have the ethereal essence of Heather or Lauren. It sounds more like the rare but possible collision of a burp and hiccup.

My mom called me Doll. My dad sometimes called me Pecky Lou or Pete. My husband calls me Babe, Woman, or Turkey Butt, always with love. One son calls me Mom, the other calls me Mother. Occasionally, during my blonde moments, they call me Big Dumb Girl. Youth I taught still call me Pegs. My son's high school swim team called me Mama Tidwell, and, back in the day, my other son's friends called me Peggychan. (That's a Pokemon reference)

Peggy means Pearl. That I like. A pearl is the only precious gem created from a living organism. It starts as an irritation in an oyster and over time transforms into a beautiful, flawless, priceless pearl. My own transformation is still a work in progress, but I have harvested a few pearls along the way.

So what are my Pearl Drops for this blog? Wisdom? Perhaps. Musings? Probably. Randomness? Definitely. But randomness with a purpose.

I write novels and love naming my characters. I keep a spiral notebook with about 500 names and a code next to each name that corresponds to one of the ten books I'm writing. It's cleverly called the Name Book. I do this so I don't repeat names or collect a lot of names that start with the same letter in any story. OCD, I know.

This blog is intended to engage you, the reader. I'll drop pearls, but I want you to throw some back at me. Tell me about your name, or names you would use in a novel, or a name that elicits an emotion or memory.

I joined a writers' group in my area. Printed on their T-shirt is a quote something like this: "I'm always looking. I get my best material from watching people." (I never actually bought a T-shirt, so I don't remember the exact quote.)

Anyway, you never know. I may use your idea in my next novel.

Peggy

MINI PEARLS

Tigers die and leave their skins; people die and leave their names.

Any child can tell you that the sole purpose of a middle name
is so she can tell when she's really in trouble.

"...at the name of Jesus
every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord..."
Phil. 2:10-11 NIV