What I Learned at the Walk for the Animals

You can learn plenty if you just look and listen. Here's what I learned Sunday at the Delaware Humane Association's Walk for the Animals at Banning Park in Newport:

* Last year, 250 people registered for the walk. This year, 500. Great turnout on a great day. Even the rain stayed away. For more photos from the walk, click here and then click on "Walk for the Animals" under Gallery.
* Gomer, the very-friendly white and brindle pit bull mix I met last month at the humane association, was adopted. In the near right photo, he nestled in the lap of the humane association's Kimberly Hall. Good for Gomer.
* Favorite T-Shirt: "Love Is a Four-Legged Word."
* "Dujanah" in Arabic means "rain." Dujanah is the name of Carol Miller's miniature daschund, both of whom participated in the walk.
* Leave it to a librarian to name her two Brussels Griffons after Shakespearean characters. Arden Lantz, a librarian at the Delaware School for the Deaf, (photo at far right) has Horatio( left) named for a character in "Hamlet," and Macduff from "Macbeth." Lantz of Newport was part of a 10-member team -- Delaware School for the Deaf: Happy Tails.
* A 3-year-old, 150-pound chocolate brown Newfoundland can be one of the best-behaved dogs among hundreds. Forest's owner, Cathy Capone of Pike Creek, says the secret is treating dogs like dogs, not like humans.

Kudos to the humane association, its volunteers and sponsors for a walk well done!