Funny Farm: My Unexpected Life with 600 Rescue Animals

You never know what you are capable of until the day comes when you have to go places you hadn’t planned on going.

To my astonishment, within minutes, the dogs dragged Chucky’s bed and toys from the porch to the grave site and started to play on the mound of freshly dug earth. Chucky was gone, but they still included him in their game. At that, the floodgates opened. Dennie’s face crumpled. He turned and strode quickly away. In my mind, I heard Mom’s voice: “Have a good cry, Laurie. The more you cry, the less you pee.

With every benchmark, he was living proof that it was possible to have a good life in spite of a disability, and it dawned on me that he could help teach that lesson to others.

Save one life, save the world.’ Kindness begets kindness. Small efforts inspire larger ones. If you stand up for mercy and compassion, others will stand with you. The ripple effect just goes on and on.

It’s been said that the body keeps score, and the feelings you try to ignore will make themselves known one way or another, whether you’re willing to face them or not.

When I had something important to do and my room needed cleaning up, which was always, she’d say, “Laurie, the dirt will still be there when you get back. Go have fun!” When I got home, I always cleaned it, and she always had high expectations, but she knew how to put life in the proper perspective. I have since always seen the humor in things, which has carried me through many tough situations in life.

The next wave included older students who had to fulfill community service requirements to graduate or gain admittance into the honor society. Then came adults who had to complete community service hours due to minor criminal offenses.

Several times in the past I had inquired about an elective hysterectomy, but was refused because I was still in my thirties. The childbearing years. No matter how I insisted that I wasn’t planning on having kids, I was met with a stone wall of resistance and was denied the procedure.

thanks to her insurance—the fabulous union insurance she’d never used when she was healthy—most of her medical bills were paid. It was a blessing. It was one less thing to worry about.

Don't put the key to your happiness in someone else's pocket.

Many years ago, I made up my mind that, even if a person is 95 percent bad, you focus on the 5 percent that's good and decent---that's what you hold on to.

That was the end of church for Mom. She retained custody of the kids, and Dad got custody of God.

I dashed into my sister’s room just as Mom ran up to the second floor, followed by Dad, who held a carving knife. He barricaded the three of us—Mom, Cathy, me—in Cathy’s room, then lay in the doorway on the floor, the knife in his clenched hand.

In late February 2020, I got the call informing me that my father had toppled down the staircase of his home and died.