We Returned Home to a Better Bonz

During the morning, Dee and I went to Misty Pines Dog Park to get Bonz after his 6 day stay there and to meet with his dog trainer, take a lesson, and hear his take on Bonz behavior. It was a good meeting and very worthwhile. We learned a lot. The one hour class gave us time to practice what the trainer told us about how our behavior affects the dog's behavior. I was please that we'd had the trainer work with Bonz on the day before so he could get used to Bonz. It was obvious he'd made progress in that short half hour class. Bonz did well. The hour we spent with Bonz and the trainer was good for both Dee and me.

When we got home with Bonz he was like a different dog. We'll see as he goes along, if we can be consistent and he can continue to practice what he (we) learned.

Later in the day, Dee went to Butler with her sister to make arrangements with the Funeral Director. Of course our hope that those plans are not carried out any time soon, nonetheless, plans were set in place for the eventuality. They were pleased with the progress they'd made in a short couple of hours. While they were doing that i went to the Rotary Club meeting at Treesdale. It was a good meeting and I met and visited with some new people I hadn't sat with before.

I've been reading a new book, "How to Talk To Anyone: (92 Little Tricks for Big Success in Relationships)" by Leil Lowndes published by McGraw Hill - 2003. It's filled with a lot of insights about how to talk with people you don't know very well. And how to do it in a way that will move the conversation along in a meaningful manner. Good stuff.

Toward evening, before the Penguin Hockey game, I did some work on my sermon for this Sunday at Penn Hills Baptist Church. Since I haven't preached for over 5 months, I'd like to do this one well. They gave me a topic indicating it's "Children's Sunday" at their church and so they want a message about ministry to and with chidren. I've decided to use the children's book "Horton Hears a Who" as one of the illustrations. You may recall his famous line "A person is a person, no matter how small." It's a neat story that everyone should read. It takes about 7 minutes to read it at Borders or Barnes and Nobel. Or you can see it at the movie theater this summer. (Likely, it'll be on DVD before long.)