FRANKLIN FRIDAY: THE ORIGINAL DOG

Hi, Every Buddy! It's me me me memememememememe! I just sang that last part so my voice will be ready in case I need to howl along to a siren.

Anyway, I'm Franklin the Bordernese, and today is my day. This is what I look like when I get up close to Mom's camera. She says I have sweet brown eyes. Gosh, Mom loves me so much, and I love her.

Mom says that I am here because of THE ORIGINAL DOG. His name was Faulkner, and he went to Heaven to live before I moved in. He was the gateway dog. He was so smart and so bootiful that he made Mom want to have other dogs.

Mom says I can tell you some stories about Faulkner. He was a smooth collie. This is Faulkner:

Mom and Faulkner fell in love as soon as they met. He was 11 months old. He lived with people who didn't take good care of him, so Mom took him to her house so they could love each other forever.

Faulkner was the only purebred dog to live with Mom. He had special papers that she sent away someplace so the whole world could know his full name. He was called Faulkner of Sound and Fury. Mom says that's because of a book by a writer named Faulkner.

Because Faulkner was a real collie, he had a herding instinct. It meant he wanted to tell people and other things which way they were supposed to go. The Hurricane was in middle school when Faulkner moved in. Mom would let him out of the house when The Hurricane got off the school bus. He would run around The Hurricane and give her little nudges to make sure she went in the garage and then in the house. I guess he was worried she didn't quite know how to get home, so he took care of her. She always thanked him and told him she couldn't make it without him.

I've met that Hurricane girl. She's so pretty. She visits sometimes. Hurricane says "hi" to Mom, and then she hugs and kisses us doggies and tells us how wonderful we are and says she's missed us. I like her. She shares her toast, too. I wish she'd visit more often.

I'm not saying Faulkner was wrong, but The Hurricane seems pretty smart to me. I think she knew how to get in the house, but Faulkner felt like he needed to take care of his family so he made sure she was okay.

I've never met Dr. X, but Mom said when he would get home from work and drive his car into the garage that Faulkner would herd the car to make sure Dr. X got the car in the right way. I think Faulkner was very smart and very brave to be able to tell a car what to do.

Faulkner never ran away, and he never went out to the road by himself. He stayed where he was supposed to be and looked after his family.

I never run away, either. I want to be just like THE ORIGINAL DOG.

I take care of Mom. I bark really loud at strangers who come to our door. I pretend I'm mean, and the strangers almost always get big eyes and they back away from my door.

That makes me feel important.

I'm part collie, but I'm not a smooth collie like Faulkner. I'm a border collie and a Burnese Mountain dog. I don't feel like I need to herd people, and Mom says I'm fine just the way I am.

Thanks for reading about Faulkner, Every Buddy. I'll tell you more about THE ORIGINAL DOG some other time. Right now I have to bark at a cat that's in our driveway.

YOU DON'T BELONG HERE, MISTER CAT! Woof woof wooooooofffffff!

I love you, Every Buddy!

Franklin