Tator and Grandma Part II

While my camera work won't win me an Oscar or Pulitzer anytime soon, here's more footage and photos on Tator's day out with Grandma. I don't know who I fell in love with more: Tator or Grandma.

Tator and Grandma

For anyone's who's ever owned a pet, I'm told an indescribable sense of happiness comes from bonding with one. I'm told a pet - a dog in this case - makes you feel happy in no way a human ever could.

After dog-sitting my favorite four-legged friend, Tator, this past weekend, I can see why. There's something really awesome about a dog unexpectedly coming up to you and licking your face, putting his head on your lap, or barking when he feels you're threatened.

My boyfriend, Josh, and I took Tator to see Josh's 90-year-old grandmother this past weekend. She lives in Boynton Beach in an assisted living home, and we figured she could use a little four-legged loving. Grandma's still sharp, witty, mobile, happy and thoughtful, Josh and I felt Tator could break Grandma out of her normal routine at the assisted living home and, well, add a little excitement to an otherwise mundane Sunday.

For once, we were right. Grandma loved Tator. And, I'd like to think Tator loved Grandma.

The Quote

For this blog entry, here's a topic that has nothing yet everything to do about South Florida. Yesterday I read a quote from Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi. Who, you ask? Yeah, I didn't know him either until about a week ago.

Qureshi, a Pakistani, is one-half of men's doubles team that went all the way to the final of this year's U.S. Open. The finals, played on Sept. 10, had one of the best quotes I've heard in a while. When accepting the runner's up award, Qureshi was given the mike and an opportunity to address the 23,000 in the stands. Said Qureshi:

"There's a bad perception that Pakistan is a terrorist nation. We're a friendly, loving, caring people. We want peace as much as you guys. May god bless us all."

What makes the lil' speech even more impactful is that throughout this year Qureshi and his doubles partner Rohan Bopanna, from India, have been wearing the slogan "Stop War, Play Tennis" on their sweatshirts.

Whether or not sports is an appropriate platform for political talk, I'm not here to say. But in this case, I can appreciate Qureshi seizing this opportunity to speak in front of a crowd that saw so much disaster nine years ago. Call it political, call it brave, or just call it a person speaking about the elephant in the room. Either way, it was a message I'm happy to hear.