Canine In Translation

Thank you foster families for your generosity and devotion to saving lives!
This little girl was transported to a family in Philly thanks to a collaboration between the Humane Society of Harrisburg and Familiar Hearts Animal Society. Lucky for her, she had a family ready to provide hugs and a home.

In celebration of National Pet Week, a reminder that we have much to learn about - and from - our canine teachers

A poem by Mary Oliver:

PERCY WAKES ME
Percy wakes me and I am not ready.
He has slept all night under the covers.
Now he’s eager for action: a walk, then breakfast.
So I hasten up. He is sitting on the kitchen counter
where he is not supposed to be.
How wonderful you are, I say. How clever, if you
needed me,
to wake me.
He thought he would hear a lecture and deeply
his eyes begin to shine.
He tumbles onto the couch for more compliments.
He squirms and squeals; he has done something
that he needed
and now he hears that it is okay.
I scratch his ears, I turn him over
and touch him everywhere. He is
wild with the okayness of it. Then we walk, then
he has breakfast, and he is happy.
This is a poem about Percy.
This is a poem about more than Percy.
Think about it.
—Mary Oliver