If at the end of the day you feel dog-tired, maybe it’s because you growled all day.

Source: P.S. I Love You, H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

And, remember…Feed Your Good Dog, so your good dog always wins!
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WAYS TO MAKE YOURSELF FEEL GOOD THIS WEEKEND (continued from TGIFYGDF dated November 6 )

These good deed ideas (11 through 20) make “feeding your good dog” as easy as taking a walk in the park. Source: 50 good deeds for 50 days, By Daniela Payne

11. Put together a basket of treats for a friend who had a death in the family. Deliver it after the funeral has taken place, when most friends have gone back to their day-to-day lives.

12. Drive your grandparents, elderly parents and their friends to church, doctor’s appointments or the movies. They (and their aging bodies) will value the gesture.

13. Volunteer for a charity. Pick a cause that’s near and dear to your heart and donate your time to them.

14. Sit down with your family and estimate what you’d spend on each other for gifts. Instead of buying each other gifts for birthdays or holidays, donate the estimated amount to a charity.

15. If you head out of town, drop off your monthly public transit pass at a youth or job centre. They’ll pass on the pass to someone who is in need of it to job hunt or attend school.

16. Take your neighbors trash to the curb while you’re taking yours. Imagine their surprise when they see that the chore is already done.

17. If you’re in line at the grocery store with a full cart, let the person behind you who only has 5-10 items go in front of you.

18. Offer to take care of a neighbour’s pet when they go away on a small vacation. They’ll be comfortable knowing their pet is in good hands.

19. Make dinner for friends with a newborn baby (or, if they’re far away, send a gift card for the grocery store or a favourite restaurant so they can pick something up).

20. Pay for the person behind you at the drive thru. It will make someone’s day!

And, remember…Feed Your Good Dog, so your good dog always wins!
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A LITTLE LIGHT HUMOR TO GIVE THANKS FROM GARRISON KEILLOR AND RICHARD DWORSKY OF A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION

“THANKS”
From Garrison Keillor and Richard Dworsky
A Prairie Home Companion
November 22, 2008

I am thankful for ATM machines
For the smell of coffee beans
For the dishwasher and for the GPS
Thought up by the Pentagon, a great success
That makes it unnecessary for us men
To ever need to ask for directions again.

I am grateful for blogs and other new media
And of course for the miraculous Wikipedia
Which puts information at your fingertips
An innovation as great as sailing ships,
Or putting a steam engine on the rails,
So thank you Larry Sanger and Jimmy Wales.
And thank you Larry Page and Sergey Brin
Who in 1997 launched a search engine
Google, which simply is superb
A noun that quickly became a verb.

Please leave a comment and let us know what you are thankful for this Thanksgiving holiday. We wish you a very happy Thanksgiving!

And, remember…Feed Your Good Dog, so your good dog always wins!
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Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.  It turns what we have into enough, and more.  It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity.  It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.  Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.  ~Melody Beattie

And, remember…Feed Your Good Dog, so your good dog always wins!
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TEN YEAR OLD MARYMARGARET’S MUSIC FOR LIFE WILL PROVIDE LOADED MP3 PLAYERS TO KIDS TO HELP ENDURE STAYS IN HOSPITAL

Ten year old MaryMargaret O’Neill has raised $3,114.44 over the last year, through her Music for Life effort. The money she has collected will go to buy as many MP3 players (with adapters) as possible to give the gift of music to kids who are in treatment at the Children’s Medical Center in Washington DC. She and her family spent 10 rocky days there four years ago, and the experience has had a profound impact on her since she suffered through many invasive and painful tests.

Now MaryMargaret needs our help. She is looking for matching funds from a corporate sponsor to make the money she has raised over the last year go farther so she can give the gift of music to as many kids as possible enduring medical tests and procedures during their stays in hospital.

Based on her experience, MaryMargaret came up with the Music for Life project. She wants the kids to be able to enjoy the therapeutic qualities of the music. She knows that it will help them through the uncomfortable and painful tests and procedures they must endure during this difficult time in their lives.

The MP3 players will be prepopulated with music from Nicholas Giordano and Cowbell Digital Music. Nicholas is a 13-year-old hero who plays classical guitar and Cowbell Digital Music (@CowbellMusic on Twitter is an Australian company providing digital streaming music. They have offered as many free downloads as they need to populate all the players. As soon as the MP3 players have been purchased and preloaded the music, MaryMargaret will deliver them to Children’s Hospital.

MaryMargaret is looking for corporate sponsors to match the amount she has raised. While you are out and about this weekend visiting family and friends, please let them know of MaryMargaret’s efforts. You never know how far reaching these discussions will go. Let’s see if by spreading the word we can help MaryMargaret find a corporate sponsor. Let’s also think about our contacts at Sony, Apple, San Disk, Best Buy or CicuitCity.com that might possibly provide a meaningful discount on the players so MaryMargaret can purchase more of them and help more kids.

MaryMargaret, and her family, can tell you that a child’s stay in a hospital, especially while trying to figure out what is ailing them, is a very trying time for both the child and the parents — and they are hoping that they can make other kids’ stays just a little bit more comfortable. If you think you can help with this effort, please contact MaryMargaret, and her family, directly here. Thank you.

Sources:

KidsAreHeroes.com

and

Next Phase Music for Life

And, remember…Feed Your Good Dog, so your good dog always wins!
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16 YEAR OLD RILEY CARNEY…THE TAYLOR SWIFT OF LITERACY….IS A PUBLISHED AUTHOR WITH A PASSION FOR ELIMINATING ILLITERACY WORLDWIDE…AND, SHE IS SUCCEEDING

On her website, Riley says of herself: “I write for teenagers from a unique perspective – I am a teenager! I try to make my stories exciting, filled with action and humor, and my characters relatable.”

The Fire Stone: Book One of The Reign of the Elements has been published and is available on Amazon.com. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of Riley’s books go to her passion of giving the gift of literacy to children worldwide.

Not only is Riley a published author, but she is also very involved with eliminating illiteracy and poverty for children around the world. She believes that teaching children to read breaks the cycle of poverty and exploitation of children.

At the age of 14, Riley created her own non-profit organization called Breaking the Chain with the goal of eliminating illiteracy in children. So far, she has raised enough money to build two schools in Africa and create a children’s literacy center in a woman’s shelter in Colorado. This year, her older brother, Nick, joins Breaking the Chain and they will be working together on literacy and sustainable development around the world.

Congratulations Riley on your successes and for accomplishing so much to change the lives of others for the good in such a short time!

Sources:

KidsAreHeroes.com

and

Riley Carney’s Website

And, remember…Feed Your Good Dog, so your good dog always wins!
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You just have to take the dis off of disability — it’s all about ability. ~James Terpenning

Source: Mary McManus Blog Post Take Out the Dis- on DarynKagan.com and Extreme Makeover Home Edition

And, remember…Feed Your Good Dog, so your good dog always wins!
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EMMY AWARD WINNING JOURNALIST, BYRON PITTS, SHARES HIS LIFE’S STORY TO INSPIRE THOSE WHO MAY THINK “THEY CAN’T”

Byron Pitts, is the chief national correspondent for the CBS Evening News, an Emmy-Award Winning Journalist, and a “60 Minutes” contributor. His success is a result of hard work, dedication, faith, and the presence of a number of helpful people along the way who helped him through personality and learning difficulties.

Byron was painfully shy as a child, had a bad stutter until he was 20, and was diagnosed as functionally illiterate at the age of 12. Before that it was suggested that he might be placed in a “special needs” program. Despite these challenges and with help, Byron made it through high school and college, and on to realizing his dream of a career in television journalism. All the while holding these challenges secret and living with shame.

This is all laid out in Byron’s book entitled Step Out on Nothing How Faith and Family Helped Me Conquer Life’s Challenges. It is an intimate telling of how he overcame what others might consider insurmountable hardships. His story is written to acknowledge those in his life who gave of their time and energy, on nothing but faith. They did so to help him overcome his life’s challenges so that he could follow his dream.

Byron also opens a window to his past so that we may see based on his experiences that we are not alone on this journey in life and that others will step in to help us over the rough spots if we let them.

Additionally, Step Out on Nothing is Byron’s leap of faith that his story may be a source of inspiration to a young child or an adult with a secret of their own that is holding them back from realizing their dream.

We say Byron Pitts is “feeding his good dog” with Step Out on Nothing, and has improved himself to improve the world. When you listen to Byron introduce his book in the audio below you can’t help be inspired to think of all that is good in the world. Click on the play arrow and become inspired!

And, remember…Feed Your Good Dog, so your good dog always wins!
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Sources:
NCFL
Step Out on Nothing Book Review, By Kam Williams”
Amazon

To the men and women of the armed forces who defend our Constitution and keep us safe at home and abroad, and to the Veterans who have done the same, and to their families; and to the families and loved ones of the wounded and fallen soliders…we salute you and thank you every day, and especially on this Veterans’ Day 2009, for your service; and, we are humbled by your sacrifice.

In looking for ways to say thanks to our military, we came across an appropriately named organization, The Thank You Foundation. Its mission is to show appreciation and express gratitude for members of the U.S. Military both past and present. They believe that saying thank you is not enough and that the words must be followed up with action and commitment.

Following are two ways in which The Thank You Foundation meets its mission:

First…The Thank You Foundation had a dream to build a mobile health unit to better serve the health needs of military veterans. Cintas heard of their dream and partnered with the foundation to fund the unit’s creation.

The mobile health unit is booked for the next 6 months, stationed at many public events around the tri-state where many veterans may be in attendance.

And, second…The Thank You Foundation delivers the Kroger Neighborhood Rewards Program and makes it easy to help “Support the Troops” and our Veterans simply by shopping at Kroger.
  

HERE’S HOW

You may link to The Thank You Foundation here to obtain a Kroger Gift Card.

After you receive the card from The Thank You Foundation take it to any Kroger or any Kroger owned store and load it with a cash value of anything between $10 – $250.

Then use the card to make purchases just like a debit or credit card.

Each quarter Kroger will donate 4% of the total value of all cards distributed by The Thank You Foundation back to the foundation to be used by them to continue their “Mission of Appreciation” and to send care packages, honor Veterans, support military families and other programs offered by the foundation.

And, remember…Feed Your Good Dog, so your good dog always wins!
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We all do ‘do, re, mi,’ but you have got to find the other notes yourself. ~ Louis Armstrong

And, remember…Feed Your Good Dog, so your good dog always wins!
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