November 29, 2014

White Dog and the others breathed a huge sigh of relief. "I am ready for just a normal day," WD said. "All this holiday feasting and excitement and planning is exhausting!"

"Don't get too settled, Little White Dog of My Heart," I told her. "We have a busy afternoon planned." Her wide-eyes and look of disbelief matched those of each of the WDA as they all saw their plans for an entire day of napping blow up in an instant. "What do you mean?" was a chorus.

"I mean Elena and Laura and Nate and Casey are coming over at noon." "MORE partying?" Puff moaned, "can't we give it a rest?" "A party! A party! A party" Zsofia zoomed around the house wooing.

"Not really a party. This is sort of working."

Seven blank stares met me and WD went to check out the office. "I don't think you will all fit at your desk," she came back and reported. Skye, Daisy and Jupiter joined us and were equally confused when the WDA filled them in.

"No, sorry to say, we will be using the living room." "Where will we nap?" was the cry. "Sweet Ones, you can nap in the bedroom or in the office or in the kitchen, but knowing you all, NO one will be sleeping. You will be supervising!"

So at noon my volunteers arrived. We pushed the coffee table aside and made space on the floor. As expected the WDA was there for each of the preparation steps...watching and commenting. Then the boys began bringing in bags of shoes and we got to work.

Last week the Public Academy of Performing Arts here in Albuquerque completed a drive to collect used shoes for the Paws To People on-going fundraiser which will provide shoes to an organization that teaches cobbling and entrepreneurial skills in impoverished nations using the shoes we provide; we get a finder's fee which will offset our organizational costs without impacting our donation dollars. These wonderful kids collected 562 pairs! But the work for us had just begun. The shoes have to be tied together in pairs and then bagged in groups of 25. Casey, Nate, Elena and Laura were here to help do that.

There were shoes from one end of the room to the other. The WDA at first felt the need to try and sniff every single pair but soon admitted THAT task was too huge. They formed teams to watch each of us as we worked. Then when the tediousness of the watch set in relaxed on top of piles and napped on emptied bags.

By the time Steve got home, the entire side of the house was stacked with bags, properly tagged and prepared, ready to go to the storage unit we are using as a holding place. Our friends had left...

...and the extended White Dog Army was snoring away in exhaustion across the now returned to normal living room.