For the last couple of weeks, many of my favorite humans have been saying, “Happy New Year” to each other; sort of like me and my friends barking.

My name is Stuart Shonk. I am a registered therapy dog and teamed with my human dad, Fred. I’ve written articles in the past until my special keyboard that allows me to type using my paws was broken at Ritter’s when my frozen custard arrived one day. I was so excited, and I knocked it to the floor. I ordered a new one online a couple of years ago, but it was stolen from our front porch by a couple of roaming dogs.

But now, I have a new keyboard, so I can bring you up to date on some of the things I do with humans.
I’m 15 years old and have been doing our therapy visits for over 11 years at Manor Care and Madison Health Care on Tuesdays and at Beech Grove Central Elementary and South Grove Intermediate schools on Thursdays.

I love going to the health care facilities because we have many friends there among residents, their families and friends and staff.

Students at the schools see us and they always bring books to sit and read to me. I am lucky to have such kind young friends. I just don’t like their fall and winter breaks because the schools are closed, and they can’t read to me.

I’ve also been busy helping and providing therapy for my human mom, Lyn. I’m sure lots of you readers know about her getting hurt last July. Her therapy has been a long process, but I’m happy to see her getting better. I’m able to comfort her because we sit together a lot.

A few days before Christmas, I had a big surprise. My human sister, Michelle, and her husband, Ben, stopped by. My sister handed my human dad a package. He unwrapped it, opened it, but then I heard my name mentioned a lot.

None of them were paying attention to me because they kept looking at a new book they took from the unwrapped package.

I soon learned that the hard cover book with illustrations was a fictitious story about a dog named Stuart and his human dad, Fred. The book is titled, “Stuart’s Adventures in Petlandia.”

I’ve had it read to me a few times and now I fully understand the word, fiction. In the book, Stuart jumps from an airplane while it is flying over Indianapolis on a return trip from California. I have never jumped from any moving vehicle, especially an airplane.

With the arrival of the New Year, my human dad, Fred, is setting up times when he can read the book to groups at the health care centers and schools that we visit.
We hope to visit you soon.
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Happy New Year!!

It seems to me that Veterans Day is becoming a more celebrated day in the last few years. I noticed several television commercials and print advertisements offering Veterans Day deals, particularly restaurants with discounts and free items for veterans.

Veterans Day is Nov. 11, the date in 1911 of the end of World War I. The official end of the war was signed by President Woodrow at exactly 11:00 a.m. So, the month, day and time are 11-11-11 – very special.

Many of my friends and high school classmates either joined or were drafted into military service, mostly around the time of the Vietnam war. My military service came from my enlistment in the Indiana National Guard. My signing date was to have been Nov. 22, 1963, but it was delayed due to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on that date.

The six years I served in the Indiana National Guard were very good. I was assigned to a unit responsible for the care and maintenance of all the military aircraft of the Indiana National Guard. I made several new friends and was honored to serve with several guys that I grew up with or who were schoolmates.

This year, I attended the Veterans Day program at South Grove Intermediate School in Beech Grove. For about 12 years, I drove a school bus for Beech Grove City Schools and one of my routes was with South Grove students. Also, Stuart and I do a weekly reading program at two Beech Grove schools and South Grove is one of them. We have been a part of that program for several years.

Stuart did not accompany me to South Grove for the Veterans Day program, but I told him afterward about the very special program that I attended.

Several students took part in the program. The 5th Veterans Day choir performed several special songs, including “Hooray for the USA” and “America the Beautiful.” Teachers Kelly Agee and Beth Walker led the singing of ‘God Bless America.” Walker also sang The National Anthem. Beech Grove High School student Seth Rumler played “Taps.” Some students read narratives poems. Boy Scout Troop 108 presented the American flag and closed the ceremony. South Grove teachers and retired veterans Tamara Truman (SSG, retired) and Melinda Case (SPC) were the guest speakers.

At one point of the program, veterans were asked to stand and be recognized. I was proud to stand for the U.S. Army and the Indiana National Guard along with many veterans at the ceremony. Afterward, we were asked to stand in the hallway so that the South Grove students could shake our hands or give us a high five. Many of the students asked me, “Where is Stuart?”

It was also an honor for Stuart that they asked about him.

The last few months have been filled with peaks and valleys.

On July Fourth, my wife, Lyn, injured her leg and hip while on a mission trip in Ecuador. She is scheduled for knee surgery on Nov. 19, and I am sure she will have several weeks of recovery and physical therapy. She has had her peaks and valleys but has endured.

Also, we have had most of the inside walls and ceilings painted in our house with lots of stuff taken down and put back up. There are some electrical projects and a need for a new hot-water heater. We celebrate when projects, big or small, are finished.

After Lyn returned from Ecuador, I continued doing the chores for our nine chicken girls which seemed to confuse them. Thankfully, she now shows up riding an electric scooter. Three chickens, Ameraucana breed, were adopted in March. They are multi-colored and very beautiful. In the last few weeks, they have matured and started laying eggs with some producing light blue eggs instead of the normal light green eggs. The other chicken girls lay brown eggs, so my thought is that next Easter, I won’t have to color any eggs.

Our therapy dog, Stuart had his 15th birthday in September. His 15 years figure to be around 100 years in “dog years.” For a couple of years, he’s taken a few more naps daily. If either Lyn or me begin to take an afternoon nap, Stuart does his best version of a “high five” as he joins us. He seems to know when Lyn is hurting and is trying his best to make her feel better.

Oh, we are working on a new schedule due to the end of Daylight Savings time. Stuart keeps asking for his dinner on that schedule, but we are adjusting.

Stuart continues to be very busy. We continue to visit two nursing homes on Tuesday mornings. We have gained many friends who are residents and we enjoy meeting members of their families and the tremendous staff workers at both locations. Thursdays are big days for us. We visit two elementary schools in Beech Grove. Stuart loves it when the students arrive in the room and read stories to him.

Last week, my high school class, Southport High School Class of 1960, lost another member, Robert (Bob) Hohn. We did not attend the same grade school but had known each other for 65 years.

I was able to visit the funeral home Friday and visited with Bob’s widow, Linda, and one of his daughters. It was heartening to see quite a few of our classmates present, too. The Class of 1960 is so awesome.
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Bob often attended our monthly class breakfast Wednesday, so we were able to tell members who had not heard of his passing Monday. During the visitation Friday, Bob’s daughter assured us that she would attend one of our future breakfasts to hear some great “Bob Hohn” stories.

I had quite an experience this last week. We get telephone calls from a neighborhood but nationally operated drug store reminding us about need to order or pickup prescriptions. Lyn and I both have a few of these.

When you answer one of these calls, you do not begin speaking to a live human being. It is always the same voice and around our house, he is known as Callaway Vincent Sagen.

On this occasion, he asked if he was speaking to me and told me if he was that I should press the number 1. I followed his instructions. He then issued me a second instruction. I complied quickly. I was pleased that things were going so smoothly.

At this point, he asked for my birthdate. I was instructed to answer with two-digit month and day numbers. I answered,” o eight, o five”.

Callaway responded that he didn’t understand me and asked me to repeat my birthday using two numbers for both month and day. I answered exactly as I had before. He didn’t like that again and began issuing more complicated instructions.

I took that opportunity to thank him for the calls and explained that I would personally visit the drug store and inquire about his call. I’m guessing that I didn’t make that visit quickly enough because I received a second call from Mr. Sagen that turned out with the same result before my visit.

I explained to the young female pharmacist at the counter about receiving a couple of phone calls from their special employee. We laughed as I explained my difficulties. She checked my records and discovered that I did have a prescription that could be refilled. Lyn had also asked me to check on a refill for her also. I was soon told that both prescriptions would be available for pickup in about 30 minutes.

I scampered out of the store and completed a couple of other errands. When I returned, about 45 minutes later, my prescription was ready, but Lyn’s would be ready in less than 15 minutes. I stayed in the store and waited.

As I was walking around, I heard our good friend, Callaway announce over their public address system that the pharmacy had a telephone call holding on line one. He successfully repeated that several times. After a few minutes, the pharmacist called me back to the counter and explained that our insurance company wouldn’t accept and pay for her prescription for another month or so.

As I was driving home, I started thinking about Calloway again and was trying to figure out why he couldn’t understand me when I was answering his question about my birthday. I figured it out. I should have said “zero eight zero five” when asked for my birthday.

Well, the following day, Callaway phoned me again.  When he gave me my instruction to use two numbers for both the month and day of my birthday, I answered, “zero eight, zero five”. He once again said he didn’t understand my response and ask for it again. Same results! I quickly disconnected.

The very next evening, after I had considered my conversations with Calloway many times, it came into my thoughts that he was asking me to peck those numbers onto the telephone keyboard and not say them out loud to him.
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I’m planning a very heartfelt apology for him the very next time he telephones me.