When we reach Friday, Social Security Survival Day, I’ll mail my few quarters for Pet Idol of Natchez. This will aid the newspaper with education for children.

Realizing self-interest, I’ll probably vote for my own dog. She’s No. 32. She’s a kennel club registrant, but too shy for showmanship. Her sisters and brothers were lost to Katrina; her mother bolted and was killed; so her lineage may be halted.

She consoled me when I lost my younger son. He was a “Lassie” addict. Dogs have their innate nature of sniffing grief, our losses or to alert us to danger or someone’s wrongdoing. They’re like Snoopy, with God’s biblical way. They only ask that we care for them in kindness.

If I don’t vote for my own and become altruistic unto others, I’m apt to vote for the horse, Silverado. He reminds me, from ancient memory, of being a child and riding in thunderstorms.

If I don’t vote for my own dog, nor Silverado the horse, I’m apt to vote for either of the shiny black dachshunds. That’s because my other dog is old and no longer slick. He’s wrinkled and itches.

I could vote for Sugar of Turning Pages, or I could vote for Sugar No. 58. She portrays motherhood.

Or I could vote for Tammie, who beseeches in humility. Then there’s the pets of humor. There’s Annabelle, the laughing cat; Ditto, who is drinking from a faucet and Mailbox, who is laughing.

My dog is like a “Lassie.” Her bravado of bark could lead us toward solutions of animal cruelty.

My Crissie K could bark in my vote in memory for a dog named Bae Bae.

There was a letter about him in The Democrat on Aug. 25 by grief-stricken owner Charlotte Nettles. The little dog was poisoned by anti-freeze and, though it had veterinary care, he suffered and died about the time of Pet Idol entries. Bae Bae has no number nor legitimacy for the contest. Still, I’d like to vote for Bae Bae.

He could become the poster boy if children in their art classes were to color him with his living squirrel playmate.

In Mississippi politics, Natchez could lead the way to making animal cruelty a felony.

Corinne O’Begley

Natchez resident