A girl remembers her incomparable dog

I received this poem that 11-year-old Lauren McLaughlan wrote about her incomparable dog, Jackson, from her grandfather Jerry Gibens.

The Incomparable Dog

He had brown eyes,

A soggy wet nose,

Pink tongue that would lick my face,

A smile that would never frown,

Light brown and black fur starting to grow gray hair,

A dog tag that said his name

And that he belongs to me.

Everybody who met him fell in love with him,

He couldn't stop being loved,

Because he loved so much.

Then the unthinkable happened,

We found out he was incredibly sick...

Seconds felt like hours

Hours felt like months,

Months felt like years,

I could feel his pain.

(I tried being tough for my mom and dad, but it was hard sometimes),

The day finally came

Aug. 1, 2006

We didn't want him to suffer any more...

I think it was a good thing,

Now I know he's happy

I know I'll see him again someday,

Yah, someday, till then he will be...

The incomparable dog.

-- n n

Gardnerville resident Sandy Tabaldo's grandson AJ Tabaldo is one of the top 24 contestants in American Idol.

Sandy, who has lived in Nevada for nearly 17 years, said she and her husband are very proud of AJ, who was on again Thursday night. She's not allowed to talk about the competition, but was definitely watching.

AJ lives in Santa Maria, Calif., which is where Sandy and Adrain came from.

-- n n

Some folks found the Today newspaper rolled up and tossed on their driveways in the Gardnerville Ranchos, which is funny because we don't offer home delivery of the daily tabloid containing news of the world. It goes into the boxes or is stacked in businesses and people pick it up.

What wasn't so funny is what was rolled up inside it.

It was a flier that said Black History Month across the top and was a rant written by the Ku Klux Klan.

We didn't sell these folks space or give them permission to use our publication for this purpose. As far as we are concerned the Todays and our name were stolen for this use.

The irony is that these guys committed a crime to talk about how many black people were in prison. It didn't really make much sense for them to target Douglas County in the first place.

According to the U.S. Census there were only 30 black people in the entire county in 2000.

-- n n

It is a sad sign of the times that one of the pineapples shared by the welcome to Gardnerville sign was hacked off by vandals over the past couple of weeks.

I'm not going into what pineapples have to do with either Minden or Gardnerville.

On more a positive note, Genoa's sign is back up after being knocked down by a runaway car in October.

-- Kurt Hildebrand is editor of The Record-Courier. Reach him at khildebrand@recordcourier.com or 782-5121.