Thanks

Thanksgiving and the Holidays are officially upon us!  Many folks will return to their ancestral homes, share food and drink with loved ones, and bask in the proverbial warmth of kith and kin.  This is also the time when many stop and reflect on all that they have in their lives and express thanks and gratitude.

We do things a little bit differently around here at the Deaf Dogs and Benevolent Gnomes homestead.  The big important things in our lives are too amazing to only express gratitude for them one day a year.  We spend 364 days a year being grateful for the big things we have.  Not a day goes by where I don't give the misses a hug and tell her "I love you".  Not a day goes by that I don't pet our furry companions, or tuck them in at night and remind them they are loved (even if they can't hear).  We try to always express our gratitude for our family and friends, our health, and the countless thing that bring us comfort and happiness in our daily lives. 

Since we spend the rest of the year being grateful for all the big important things we have in our lives, we usually spend Thanksgiving being thankful for the little things that make small moments or ordinary days special.  Today we're thankful for:

Warm afternoon sunbeams.

Bowls of freshly harvested currants.

 

The ability to explore our world and discover cool things, like Harlequin Ducks.

Monarch Butterflies in the garden.

The ability to try and fail, and learn from our failures, like the failed sauerkraut experiment.

Things that are beautiful just for the sake of being beautiful.

The little things in life, they're pretty darn special too. 

The Professor and The Puppy

The girls hanging out on the floor for snuggle time.  Shadowfax has very good posture when she sits up straight.

Online Fundraiser for Circle of Friends Humane Society - Grand Forks, North Dakota

It's been our good fortune here at Deaf Dogs and Benevolent Gnomes to have gotten involved with our local animal shelter - the Circle of Friends Humane Society in Grand Forks, North Dakota. It is this involvement over the last month and a half that has prevented us from making more frequent posts, but it's all for the greater good of helping out the furry little critters in our community.

This post is a request for action from our awesome Deaf Dogs and Benevolent Gnomes readers.  The Circle of Friends Humane Society is having an online fundraising event where they're trying to raise $5,000 in 5 days.  If you can, both me and the little creatures of the greater Grand Forks area would be eternally grateful if you could make donation.  Here's the website for donating to Circle of Friends.  They would be incredibly happy for any donation, no matter how small.

If you're not in a spot to donate money, that's fine!!!  They would love to feel your support in other ways. One of the easiest ways is through the Amazon Smile program.  This is a charitable arm of Amazon that donates 0.5% of all purchases you make if you've linked up your Amazon account to the Circle of Friends Humane Society.  It's super easy to sign up for this and doesn't cost a thing.  Go to smile.amazon.com and type in "Circle of Friends Humane Society" in Grand Forks, North Dakota. It should come up in a search box, then simply click on it.

Your Amazon page will now say "Supporting: Circle of Friends Humane Society" at the top left of the web page.  Then just use Amazon as you normally would and we'll receive 0.5% of the proceeds of stuff you buy AND we'd be forever grateful for your support.  Thank You.

First Snow of the Year Means Warm Dog Beds

The official arrival of winter means no more messing around when it comes to being all warm and snuggly.  Now here in North Dakota, we don't wait for the Winter Solstice (December 21st) for the beginning of winter.  Winter starts when the first dusting of snow falls and sticks.  We had a thorough dusting of snow on Sunday that has stuck around for the start of the week, and flurries are still falling as we speak.  Thus, winter is upon us. 

Snow on the ground means the dog bed heaters are added to all their big ole’ fluffy dog beds.  The dogs (yes are spoiled) really seem to appreciate it and nap time seems to take on a whole new level of importance.  

UFO Abduction in Cavalier, North Dakota

Devoted Deaf Dogs and Benevolent Gnomes readers alerted us to the fact that there was an alien abduction just yesterday right in Alycia's hometown of Cavalier, North Dakota.

You can read about the alleged alien abduction here. 

We'll ignore the facts that there is only one (1) security camera in the entire town of Cavalier and it just happened to perfectly catch an "alien abduction", and there are literally hundreds of more remote roads in the area that would be much more ideal to abduct someone from.  More than likely this was a bored teenager, who should at least get some kudos for putting Cavalier, North Dakota on the viral interwebs map.