Meet Sparky, A School's Best Friend

I had to blog about this little story!  I read it in the May 2nd, 2011 PEOPLE magazine that I have had sitting around the house for over a year.  It is such a sweet and humbling story.  Like I said, I did NOT write any of the following story.  It was written by: Jeff Truesdell from PEOPLE.  I do not own, or claim to own, any of this story.  Have I made myself clear enough?

As adorable as the miniature dachshund was, his Missouri breeder held little hope that he'd find the pup a home.  The dog was cute, but he'd been born deaf and barked incessantly.  In fact the breeder was on the verge of putting him down when a family unexpectedly took him in.  But the family lost patience quickly and took him to a shelter.  The pup was as tough a case as they had seen.  Says Marsha Martin of the Animal Shelter of Texas County: "What in the heck was I going to do with a deaf wiener dog?"

Then she had an idea.  The dog was perfectly suited to a program at a state prison where inmates give rescue animals special training meant to make them better pets.  Using American Sign Language, inmates taught the dog basic commands--sit, stay, lie down--then wrote to the Missouri School for the Deaf in Fulton, MO., hoping for a home.  "He's an adorable, people-loving, 1-year-old, crystal-blue-eyed miniature dachshund ," wrote the inmates.  For school superintendent Barbara Garrison, "It was a no-brainer."  Students instantly took to the dog, naming him Sparky and begging him to sit on their laps and sleep in their rooms.  With a pet back home who answers only to voice commands, Catherine Slinkard, 16, says, "it was pretty cool to have a dog that would listen."  Adds Michael Miller, 18: "He's just like us."

I love that story.  Little Sparky and the little kids both have companions.  They found each other, and that is beautiful!  Well, that's it for now!

- XOXO K.C.