CASA Spotlight: Meet CASA Linda K
Linda Karek has been an advocate for six years.
Linda says that her favorite thing about being a CASA is meeting her kiddo at what might be the worst time in their life and seeing the changes that can come with consistent care. Showing up week after week is powerful.
Linda advises her other CASAs to embrace the support they can get from one another. If you are struggling with something, more than likely someone else has been too and may have come up with an idea you haven’t thought of yet.
Being a CASA is not for everyone, but there are many opportunities for volunteering within The Voice for Clinton County’s Children. And if kids are not your thing, please seek out one of the many other opportunities within our community.
Remember When? – Thanksgiving 2014
Kindergarten students in Mrs. Glowacki’s and Mrs. Schmitz’s Kindergarten classes at St. Joseph School in St. Johns gathered to re-enact the first Thanksgiving feast dressed as Pilgrims and Native Americans.
They prayed, thanking God for their many blessings, and then enjoyed a snack of turkey roll-ups, corn muffins, cranberry sauce and pumpkin bars.
A Look Back Again – Thanksgiving, 1937
Mrs. Frank Coykendall displays two fine looking turkeys that ended up on somebody’s table for Thanksgiving in 1937.
Maralyn’s Pet Corner – Why Do Dogs Lick Your Face, and Is It a Problem?
As a dog owner, you are probably familiar with dog face licking, whether you think it’s cute or not. But why do dogs lick your face? Should you stop the behavior?
Why Do Dogs Lick Your Face?
The common dog face licking behavior has evolved from the wolf puppy behavior of licking the mouths of adult dogs to prompt the regurgitation of partially digested food. This is how puppies transition from suckling their mother’s milk to eating partially digested food to more solid food.
Licking another dog’s face or a human’s face is a normal social behavior. Licking can be an appeasement gesture that signals a dog’s social deference. It can also be a signal to solicit food, more social information, a sign of affection or to solicit attention.
A dog licking faces or other body parts can also occur as part of grooming. Your dog may lick his canine housemate’s face and your face or other body parts. When your dog cannot reach your face, he may lick the closest body part, which may be your hand, arm or leg. In certain cases, the licking behavior can be interpreted as a sign of affection.
Some dogs may try to lick a complete stranger’s face. Why do they do that? It may be in an attempt to appease the stranger so that the stranger does do anything harmful or threatening to the dog. When dogs lick the face of children, it can be a sign of affection, appeasement or simply the act of cleaning food residue off their face.
Is Dog Face Licking a Health Risk?
For healthy children and adults, dog saliva is not a health risk for intact skin. It is not healthy, however, to allow your dog to lick an open wound on your skin. Their saliva may continue to keep the wound moist and open and allow bacteria to thrive, leading to a potential skin infection.
In the past year, there have been 12 cases reported to the CDC in which people have gotten sick from a bacteria carried in the dog’s saliva. In those cases, the bacteria Capnocytophaga canimorsus was the culprit. This particular bacteria is found in both dogs and cats and is harmless to them.
However, in cases where an individual has a compromised immune system, there is potential for the bacteria to cause an infection. The bacteria has to enter the skin through an open wound, such as from a bite or a cut on the skin.
Typically the dog has to have a high concentration of that particular bacteria, and their saliva has to come into contact with the open wound. It is best practice to wash your hands after petting any dog.
Should You Allow Your Dog To Lick You?
For most healthy people, a dog licking faces or other body parts should pose minimal health risk. If you are concerned, then do not let dogs lick your mouth or anywhere near an open skin wound.
I sometimes offer dogs the underside of my chin to lick. Then I immediately wash my face or apply antibacterial sanitizing spray or gel to that area of my face. Alternatively, I may allow them to lick my hand, and then I wash my hands afterwards or use an antibacterial spray or gel on my hands.
What If You’re Not a Fan of Dog Face Licking?
First, recognize that you might be reinforcing the licking behavior. If every time your dog licks your face, you give him attention, he is more likely to repeat the licking behavior. And if your pup licks you on the face or mouth when you are eating, and you give him a piece of your food, you are encouraging the behavior to continue.
If you do not like having your dog lick your face, you can always redirect them to exhibit affection and attention in a more acceptable manner to you, and be sure not to encourage the behavior.
Now and Then – COVID-19 takes another one of our own
by Jean Martin
According to State statistics, there were 101 COVID deaths in Michigan last Saturday. It’s that 101st that hit us hard when we checked the internet the next day.
Tom Maier was one of the little kids in the neighborhood where we grew up. Maralyn Fink and I babysat for the family. There was a reason that we double-teamed them when we could, and that reason was Tommy.
In recent years we would get a phone call from Tom every once in a while. Other funeral directors just sent us the files or obituaries they wanted us to post, but Tom would always called personally. We would tell him to email the files, and then we would reminisce a while.
Every time he called, Tom, who was now a family man and respected businessman in his community, would begin by apologizing for being so much trouble to us when he was a little boy. And as much as we wanted to do so, we never were quite able to tell him that he hadn’t been any problem because, in truth, he had been a little stinker. Then we could continue bringing one another up do date with where our lives were and where we thought we were headed.
So it came like a punch to the gut when we foolishly checked the internet one more time before bedtime only to learn that Tom had died in a hospital in Mt. Pleasant from COVID-19. We were not alone in our shock and sadness. Here is just one comment from someone in the Wideman community who had benefited from knowing and coming to rely on Tom.
RIP to one of the greatest men I know. Thank you for always treating me like family, for being there for my family as we were falling apart. You helped make the process so easy when we lost my dad and for that, we truly never can thank you enough. You always lit up a room. You truly are a one of a kind and I’m so blessed to have known you! Happy belated birthday, rest easy and thank you for everything. You will be missed.