Maggie is a dog. She lives in a kennel in a no-kill dog shelter. She's been there for two years.
It is a good shelter, very clean, staffed by a crew of dedicated volunteers, well known in the local community. The dogs have roomy kennels with a warm dry bed area and a small covered exercise area. In addition there are three big outdoor play areas with trees and grass and wading pools.
Maggie doesn't play much. She's an older dog and very dominant. She's a magnificent animal. golden and svelt as a lioness, Her Bitchness, Queen of the Canines. She used to have a consort, a shy, beautiful male Belgian shepard mix, but he got adopted and now she's alone again.
Alone except for the voluinteer crew of which I am one. We take Maggie for walks along a county road every day. It's her connection to other living things, to humans, a way of keeping her socialized in the hope that some day someone will adopt her.
While I walk Maggie, she walks me. I have lost weight and feel healthier. I have become friends with several of the other volunteers.I go home full of stories to tell my husband. It's the lesson I have learned over and over: giving gives to the giver.
If you are interested in reading some dog stories, read on!
URL:

Last night at about ten Pacific time I went out on the deck to sip a glass of wine and smoke a cigar.  It was my way of celebrating.

While I was out there I thought about it, about what exactly I was celebrating and what I wasn't.

I was celebrating Obama's win: he's our nominee now.  I was celebrating the defeat of the biased out of touch elitist assholes of the corprotate media.  I was celebrating the defeat of the Clinton campaign's tactics.

I was not celebrating the defeat of Clinton's supporters or the defeat of Clinton herself.

More below the jump, if you are intersted.

I am a very computer maladept person and have embarassed myself by posting pieces of unfinished diaries and multiple copies of drafts, so it wouldn't surprise me if people see my moniker on a diary and respond with, "Oh god, not that idiot again!"  But I will try my best not to screw this up.

I looking for a home for a dog. I want her to go to someone who is a real dog person, someone with empathy for animals, who will see her as a personality, not a status symbol, lawn ornament, or animated teddy bear.  I hope to find someone who will love her.

Her name is Lassie but she is not a collie.  I don't know what all went into her makeup but some of it is pit bull: she has a pit bull head.  Her plume tail curls over her back when she is happy: husky?  Her fur is thick, especially around her neck: collie?  She weighs about sixty pounds and has long legs: retreiver? Let's just say she is a pure authentic mixed breed stray dog.

More below the jump.

Which one of our candidates will best be able to withstand the inevitable rightwing smears that will surely be a factor in the general election?  I think it's Obama. This isn't a long post, just a short list of reasons below after the jump.

Is it sexist to point out that periodically, when Clinton is down, she attacks?

I don't think so.  I think it is a rather obvious pattern that she has demonstrated in this campaign.  She attacked after Iowa and during Georgia when things were not going her way.  When the attacks backfired, she played nice.  Now, after Obama's winning streak, she is atacking again.

But context helps:

This is my first diary, so don't be cruel!

I like Edwards.  I deeply appreciate his role in this election season.  He has been the one who moved the Overton window, pulled the debate in a progressive direction.  His role has been to be the conscience of our party.  There have been several occasions, of which thhe recent FISA vote is an example, when  the Democrats in Congress were prepared to wimp out on an issue, but Edwards took the bold stand.  Then after Edwards took the bold stand, Obama nnd Clinton followed.  If this was a footbball game I would nominate him as Most Valuable Player.