Barks and Books - one of many posts - South Pasadena, and others

Another note to Elana about substituting at the South Pasadena Library with MaeRose, and at La Pintoresca in Pasadena

Today at the South Pasadena Library the last reader looked quite familiar. Turns out it was Nathan - a young boy I met at Dr. W's. office last week - who has been on the waiting list for Barks and Books.

His mother said they got a call from the library saying there was space, and came right over. It was such fun to have him as one of the readers after our meeting at the vet's. They have two elderly cats (17 and 14 yrs. old) and an 11 year old dog who, they say, looks like MaeRose.

There were six readers in all. One was a four-year old girl who says she is trying her best to get her father to buy a dog. Twin sisters, who seemed identical, but one was blonde, the other with light brown hair.
A six year old boy who got to read twice when there was an interlude with no one waiting. Twice, I have to admit, I have met a reader whose sex I mis-read. The first was in Sierra Madre - a plump child wearing dirty sweats and a baseball cap - with short blond hair. Thankfully, she did not find out that I thought she was a boy. She has been at each of our visits. We have also met her on our walks.

Back to my mis--reading the sex. Today the mistake was with a child wearing khaki jeans and a tee shirt. Straight black hair below shoulder length, olive skin, eyelashes to die for, beautiful smile.
I asked her/turns-out-to-be-him her name. The response was indecipherable - long, probably first and last names slung together, and maybe Tagalog for all I know. If his mother hadn't been sitting nearby and said "he has to hurry, he's meeting someone" I would never ever have know this was a boy. His mother has dark short hair, and a very pale complexion - hard to tell whether they are blood relatives.

Brian Lee appeared at the Sierra Madre library Saturday afternoon. He is a "canine counselor" who calls his method "The Way of the Dog" - an approach with stern practices, and, according to him, remarkable results. He was interrupted so many times during his talk that it wasn't as comprehensive as I would have liked. Each interruption was from a dog owner with a specific problem or question - which took him off track from presenting his dog training philosophy.

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We had three girls and two boys who read. Sweet children. One, a five year old named Gracie, twinkled when she smiled. She loves Halloween, and looks forward to being a witch.

I put little ghost stickers on the Barks and Books stickers when I went to Hastings, and had some left for today. I go to Five Acres October 30 - and will take something Trick or Treaty. I like Halloween, too.