Flowers For Socrates

by Nona Blyth Cloud

July 31 is National Mutt Day.

Millions of dogs wind up in animal shelters across the U.S. every year. Most of them are Mutts. Too many of them never get adopted, but the ones who do reach their Forever Homes pay back their adoptive families so many times over with love and loyalty – and sheer joy.

So here’s to the Mutts, on one of their special days of the year (the other one is on December 2) – because one day a year just isn’t enough to hold all the love of a Mutt.

He wa’n’t no common dog, he wa’n’t no mongrel;
he was a composite. A composite dog is a dog that
is made up of all the valuable qualities that’s in the
dog breed – kind of a syndicate; and a mongrel is
made up of all riffraff that’s left over.

– Mark Twain

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Mother Doesn’t Want A Dog

by Judith Viorst

Mother doesn’t want a dog.
Mother says they smell,
And never sit when you say sit,
Or even when you yell.
And when you come home late at night
And there is ice and snow,
You have to go back out because
The dumb dog has to go.

Mother doesn’t want a dog.
Mother says they shed,
And always let the strangers in
And bark at friends instead,
And do disgraceful things on rugs,
And track mud on the floor,
And flop upon your bed at night
And snore their doggy snore.

Mother doesn’t want a dog.
She’s making a mistake.
Because, more than a dog, I think
She will not want this snake.

“Mother Doesn’t Want a Dog”from If I Were in Charge of the World and Other Worries © 1984 by Judith Viorst – Atheneum Books for Young Readers

Judith Viorst (1931 – ) is the author of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, which has sold some four million copies; the Lulu books, and Necessary Losses. Her most recent books of poetry include What Are You Glad About? What Are You Mad About? and Nearing Ninety.

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