I sit here nine days before another Christmas holiday, gingerbread man in hand, wondering
about the days of the early animal care specialists.
They didn't get up any earlier, probably went to bed earlier due more to no electricity than
anything else. They spent Feast Days ( that's what holidays were called in those days)
doing their job taking care of animals. For you uniformed out there, it is a 365 day a year
job. It hasn't changed in centuries. They still must be fed, watered and clean-up after a
fact that will never change.
  I know several of you are scratching your heads in wonder at my wondering. It isn't
strange you see, for I belong to the world's oldest profession.  Wrong guess!
It all started with Adam and Eve and has been a viable profession since then. I consider
myself in some pretty "heavy company" because the shepherds were in the hills on the
night of Christ's birth and Noah made a pretty big splash himself.  So, as you can see, we
animal care specialists have been around for a long time.
  When I was a child, I was read a story and have remembered it only when prompted by
someone else. I have spent several days now trying to track down the book and the
author. So far, no luck. It was a story set on that Christmas Eve and had to do with
animals. I know that there is a story out there because others remember it too.
 It had to do with the animals speaking on the night of Christ's birth, precisely at midnight.
I remember the donkeys talking to the oxen about the big commotion being made over one
little child. Their concern over why very wise men would travel from so far away to pay
homage to a baby. Why shepherds would leave their flocks in search of the babe. If He
was to be the King of men, why was He sharing their stable instead of being in the palace?
 I cannot remember who was the wisest of the animals that night, and explained to the
others that this was the Son of God sent down to make all things right with the world.
Whichever of them explained this to the others saw that Jesus was a present to all the
world humans and animals alike. For we are all God's creatures.
 I remember lying in bed wondering if I got up would the family animals indeed speak at
the hour of celebration every year of the birth of Jesus. Unfortunately, I was at the time
an obedient child and never crawled from under my warm covers to check out this yearly
miracle at work. Until several years ago, the memory of this story was lodged some
where in the recesses of my mind. Judy Rae brought it back to my attention.
 My partner is many things, but a fool is not one of them. She too had heard the story but
still believed. Now that she was a partner in an animal care establishment, she knew for
certain that the day was upon her. She would hear the animals talk.
She had waited for this since she heard the story those many years ago. Judy Rae's father
was ill and not able to attend Mass on Christmas Eve, four years ago.
 I found out where Judy Rae went just before the clock struck midnight on that Christmas
Eve. I went to do bed check and found her sitting with Teddy on her lap, in the middle of
the kennel. When I asked her what she was doing she told me she was waiting for the
animal to speak. I remembered the story. It also made me glad that I close her to be my
partner. Anyone who could keep the faith that long really cares. And that, my friends, is
what this season is all about caring!

Catoosa County New 12/22/93