To the right, you'll notice a very spoiled dog and two very proud owners. They are my Papaw and my WoWo. The dog is Buttons. Buttons was a local celebrity in their neighborhood...well known for her love of eating Rolaids. My WoWo never met a critter she couldn't love, and that love trickled down to her daughter, Sandy, and her grandkids, Jill, Steven, and me. Mom says she is just too tender hearted to get attached to a dog at this point in her life. She prefers 4th graders. Through the years the names have ranged through Snoopy, Spiffy, Tiger, Benji, Rusty, Shelby, and on and on. Pixie and Little Man are on guard here now in Tazewell. In Lexington there was Cinnamon, Ginger, Sheba, and now Buffy and Daisy reign supreme. Homer holds his fort down and Rudy has Eastern Kentucky in line as well.
Despite the geographic distances among my family dog members, my heart has been stolen by a total stranger, and it was love at first sight. Her name is Mabel, and in December, she was a 67 pound beagle. 
I borrowed this photo of Mabel from WBIR.com.
According to her Facebook fan page, she is five years old and should weigh about 25 pounds. Mabel has been adopted by Dr. Angela Witzel, a veterinarian at the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine in Knoxville. The part of the story that melts my heart the most is that Mabel....bless her soul...is in fat camp. This is no joking matter.
According to her Facebook fan page, she is five years old and should weigh about 25 pounds. Mabel has been adopted by Dr. Angela Witzel, a veterinarian at the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine in Knoxville. The part of the story that melts my heart the most is that Mabel....bless her soul...is in fat camp. This is no joking matter.
Apparently, Mabel has eaten a lot of human food, and in her story, I thought about my WoWo and Papaw and got so sentimental. It's difficult for me to talk about my WoWo and Papaw because I did love them the absolute most, and I would have loved to shared Mabel's story with them. As you could see with the photo of Buttons above, my WoWo loved to feed her table scraps. And you can see my Papaw didn't object to Buttons having a snack at the family table.
I don't know a thing about Mabel's life before adoption, but I just wonder if she was loved by an elderly couple whose nest was empty like my WoWo and Papaw's. I wonder if she kept them company while they watched the Reds play baseball on television and if she got a Cracker Jack nibble once in a while. I wonder if she watched from the porch while someone mowed the yard and she ate the leftovers of his sandwich because it was just to do'wed hot to eat the whole thing. I wonder if she had ice cream cones on the screened in porch. I wonder if someone dug the seeds out of watermelon and let her take it all in. I wonder if someone put bacon grease over her Alpo. Mabel has brought back so many wonderful memories to me. I've had a constant reel to reel movie of my grandparents loving their pets playing in my mind since Mabel wobbled across the screen on WBIR.
At my core, I'm a teacher. I'm not a fancy educator. I'm a teacher. I'm old school thoughts with high tech gadgets to use in my communication.
Sure, I address the state curriculum standards for my students, but I also address the Mabel standards, as I now call them.
If Mabel were a child in middle school, the odds are that she'd be criticized. She would possibly be bullied. She might even be sad. There is a minority of children out there who are cruel to kids who look different like Mabel looks.
What are the Mabel standards? Be attentive when an animal is teaching you a life lesson. Support a creature who is struggling. Understand it takes teamwork to create a better life for yourself.
Mabel exemplifies all three of those standards.
Students need to understand how those standards apply to themselves.
My students and I are having so much fun with Mabel's story. We made her a greeting card and sent her a care package. She sent us the most precious thank you note with an actual paw mark autograph on it. Many of my students have joined her Facebook fan page and send her messages of encouragement. We're working on a secret valentine mission because no girl that cute should go without a valentine. Mabel has opened a conversation within the walls of my classroom that I could not have come up with on my own.
My seventh graders are genuinely concerned about Mabel. They ask about her daily, and I update them on her progress. We have a Mabel Wall and we're posting her progress. She will be the topic of our technical writing assignment in the spring. Her photo proudly hangs in our room. Students come up with great ideas about how we can help her and our local animal shelter at the same time. They're learning that kindness to animals is actually about compassion from people, and I think that's pretty darn fabulous.
It is my most humble wish that you have a Mabel to inspire you in the work you do each day.
If you'd like to know more about Mabel, please follow this link
