The Turkey festivus is over. Let the holiday madness begin! It's not even December yet, and Christmas music is playing nonstop on the radio and in the stores. Twinkle lights by the thousands are blinding the neighbors, and people are spend, spend, spending, practically killing one another over Playstations and other stuff they and their kids don't need. Heck, I used to get just as excited over the dime store wind-up toy my grandmother sent every Christmas. How I anticipated the arrival of that mysterious brown parcel that came all the way from Texas. I only saw my grandmother twice in my life, but I still remember those toys she sent each year that probably cost less than a dollar. Of course, if I still had all those cheap tin wind-up toys, I'd have a very valuable collection. I remember the jumping organ-grinder's monkey that played the cymbals. That was my favorite. There was also a cat with a ball of yarn and a seal that balanced a ball on its nose. I found the seal in an antique store once and bought it. Whenever I look at it, I think of Grandmother Medlin and her thoughtful gifts she sent to a young granddaughter half-way across the country.

I took Bubba to PetSmart this afternoon. He enjoyed plodding around the store, sniffing everything and getting attention from everyone. There was another lady in the store with a basset, a little female that looked just like my long lost Dolly. She was almost entirely red, like Dolly was and had a snippy little muzzle, also like Dolly's. If I didn't know better, I'd think they were related. I asked the lady if she got her from a breeder or from rescue. She seemed offended that I would suggest her dog came from rescue. Like most people, she's not aware of the fact that you can get perfectly fine purebreds from rescue, and pounds and shelters, too. You don't have to pay a backyard breeder 100s of dollars for a dog that may have no better heritage than those rescue dogs do. Although her dog was a nice little dog, I could tell it was not very well bred, and I'll bet she paid a lot of money for her. I'm sure that little Brie the Basset had papers, for what that's worth. People mistakenly believe that if a dog has papers it's a show quality dog. That's not always so. All papers do is trace the lineage of the dog. A lot of papered dogs end up in rescue, so papers don't mean diddly squat to the dog and don't guarantee that it will have a forever home. All that really matters is that the dog is loved and well cared for throughout its life. Perhaps it's the people who should have papers guaranteeing that they are worthy of keeping a dog.