It was a dark and stormy night as perky Dawn Gartin not only called the meeting to order as our stand-in Sgt at Arms, but she was also our Toastmaster for the evening. Her theme was “What Makes a Good Friend?” This was doubly appropriate as both of our speakers spoke on what has become known as man’s best friend. A good friend is a good listener, according to Dawn.
Cindy Cannon took us on a fun day’s outing with her devoted dog friend Bubba in her speech, Bubba Noooooooo! It was a fun trip meeting Bubba in all his disobedient glory. Bubba, with his pork chop jowls, smashed in nose, uneven flopped ears and slim drooling tongue, took us all on a wild outing. Things went reasonably well until Bubba met up with a bee, got stung, and had a huge allergic reaction. The emergency car ride to the vet, the policeman, and Bubba’s hallucinations from Benadryl had us laughing and glad we’d come along on such a fun trip. A great, well told story Cindy.
Dawn brought us back to what makes a good friend by asking us “Are you approachable?” With that, she introduced Iris Grimm’s speech; Help us Make Georgia a Pet-Friendly State. Iris came armed with sad stats. Over 644,000 dogs and cats are euthanized in Georgia each year. Dogs are kept in the shelter an average of seven days before they are euthanized. The tough economic times have made it necessary for some families to turn their pets into shelters. A gentleman named Steve Monahan has developed a “Meals for Pets” program. He receives pet food donations and helps families in economic down times feed and keep their pets. Now they have gone even further in their rescue efforts. With the purchase of 70 acres of land near Rome, Georgia, they have formed Green Pets America Eco Shelter. Here animals can be rescued, rehabilitated, and matched for adoption. Iris’ goal is to encourage donations to support these animals in an eco-friendly environment in which they can live, socialize, and find homes. Her real heart’s desire is to get these innocents off death row.
After a six minute break and learning from Dawn that a good friend does not gossip, we went into Table Topics. Members drew from some sort of children’s game cards with but a single word and picture of the word on them. Yep, six of us, (Bob, Ericka, Keith, Merrilee, Christina and Tom) somehow spoke on carrots, a vase, flowers, a bathtub, a bed, and finally apples!
Paul Johnson was our clever, wonderfully entertaining, general evaluator for the evening. Tom Nixon was grammarian and had chosen the word, or ate, no, it was or eight, silly us, it was orate. Thanks to Tom, members had a great time punning around and using the word. Our timer needs a battery, so Claudia used Dawn’s IPOD thing to time the speakers. Our camera is still missing so Keith Schroder recorded Iris’s speech on her cell phone; great proof of our club’s total flexibility. Dawn’s final “What is a good friend” was “A good friend is selfless.”
President Cindy Cannon conducted a brief business meeting in which we approved the purchase of a digital cam recorder. Paul and Iris will be handling this. The meeting adjourned, umbrellas snapped open and members, now perky, pet loving phriends, dashed out into the still dark and stormy night.
