Music Soothes the Savage Beast--Even at Dogwood

It has been said that “music soothes the savage beast”.


All of my four legged felons were sung to as babies. Though I’m no Hank Williams, it made them happy. Those songs still echo from time to time, through the  rooms of Dogwood.

Lucy is my oldest. When she came to Dogwood, I knew as much about having a pup in the house as I did having a million dollars. She was so little, and she cried a lot. So I would sing her the “I Love Lucy” theme.

“I love Lucy and she loves me…we’re as happy as two can be…”

She would lie cradled close to my heart, and stare up at me like I was the biggest fool in the world.

I was, and still am, for my first baby girl.

Charlie wasn’t as small as Lucy had been when he arrived. But he was just as cute. He was forever tripping over his big feet, and carried a look of despair once he’d righted himself. I found out early on that Charlie would be a hand full. He was always wet, or dirty, or chewing something he wasn’t supposed to.

Some things never change.

For him, I chose “Charlie Brown” . He was a clown, my Charlie Brown. He was always getting caught at his antics, and I could just see him with his little hang dog look asking, “Why is everybody always pickin’ on me?”

Pearl came to us on a stormy night, scared to death, and I tried to calm her with a song. All I could think of was “Pearl, Pearl, Pearl ”. Flatt and Scruggs used to sing it to Pearl Bodine on the “Beverly Hillbillies”.

“Pearl, Pearl, Pearl, come be my darlin’ girl...”

I can’t sing that song anymore. It breaks my heart.

Picking a song for Hines was a tough job. “Bad to the Bone” came to mind. “HELP!” seemed another obvious choice.

But as Hines is a show off, I sang “Act Naturally” for him.

“They’re gonna put me in the movies…”

Daisy got her name because the black patch over her eye looked like a flower. For her, I chose an old song my Daddy used to play by Mother Maybelle and the Carter family called “Wildwood Flower”.

“Oh he promised to love me and called me his flower…”

Bart, otherwise known as “El Barto”, can’t sit still long enough for a tune.

But he loves the Batman Theme, changed to please as “na na na na na ,Bartman!”.

Little Sebastian’s song came to me naturally. He purrs with delight at Elton John’s “Blue Eyes”.

“Blue eyes. Babies got blue eyes…”

Yes, it a fact: music soothes my savage beasts. Since I can’t afford a full orchestra to sooth my kibosh of convicts, and Dean Martin has passed on, we’ve made do.

They don’t seem to mind.

At Dogwood, even though we’re mostly out of tune, we still manage our own special kind of harmony.