Thanks to everyone who voted and submitted a picture for the contest. We really appreciate everyone’s enthusiasm and participation. We will publish all the winners on “Angelic Tails’” Facebook page, so stop by to see your pooch!

Submit any past and present pictures of your pooch, from a Popeye-d poodle to a Dracula-fied dachshund. We’ll pick the top five photos and post them on this page, where you can vote for the winner.

The person’s photo with the most votes will receive an autographed copy of “Angelic Tails,” along with three books: “In the Arms of Angels: True Stories of Heavenly Guardians,” “Angels and Wonders: True Stories of Heaven and Earth,” and “Guardian Angels: True Stories of Answered Prayers.” The winning photo will also be featured on Angelic Tails’ Facebook page, on this website, and in Joan’s newsletter.

Simply e-mail a picture of your dolled-up dog along with its name and a short description to rlane@loyolapress.com by 5 p.m. on Nov. 1^st. We’ll begin voting on Wednesday, Nov. 2, and announce the winner on Nov. 4. Stay tuned for a follow-up post detailing when you can begin voting.

Enjoy, and get creative with your angel dog!

OFFICIAL RULES: This contest is open to residents of the United States and Canada who are 18 years old or older. Multiple entries are allowed per household. By submitting photos, contestants confirm that they are the copyright holder for each photo, and agree to allow Loyola Press to display their photos on LoyolaPress.com, Loyola Press’s Facebook pages, Joan Wester Anderson’s website, and Joan’s newsletter. 

This contest is sponsored by Loyola Press.

Visit Angelic Tails’ Facebook page for more information: http://www.facebook.com/AngelicTails

“Angelic Tails” is a collection of 30 true stories from ordinary people who experienced God’s extraordinary grace through heavenly canine companions.
The stories challenge readers to reconsider their conception of angels—from a dog saving a newborn’s life, to a pooch protecting St. John Bosco on dangerous streets for more than 30 years.

In the end, for all who see through the eyes of faith, this book is evidence that God can use even muddy paws and cold noses to fulfill his purposes.

You can order “Angelic Tails” online at Amazon.com or Loyola Press.com—and for a limited time, Loyola Press is offering autographed copies of the book. Check out Tails’ Facebook page for more info and for pictures of our angel-like pets!

Here’s an excerpt from the chapter, “Baby’s Best Friend”:

The baby usually had a bottle about 4:30 in the morning, and on the morning of May1, Pam got up to prepare it, laying the baby on his back on their large bed, with pillows all around him and a single nightlight on.

Troy (Pam’s husband) went into the shower to get ready for work, and Bullet–Pam thought–was still drowsing near the crib. Lately he seemed to need more sleep.

But Bullet wasn’t sleeping. Suddenly Pam heard him bark, and a few seconds later he came skidding down the hallway to the kitchen, ears flapping, whining urgently and insistently.

“Bullet, stop!” Pam told him. “Do you want to go out?”

It was rare for Bullet to bark, even odder if he wanted out this early. But no. Bullet ran back down the hallway to the bedroom, then turned toward Pam. He looked up at her, and barked again, jumping off the floor, as if to say, “C’mon!” Bullet was too old to be jumping. What was going on?

The baby! Suddenly Pam realized that Bullet was trying to alert her. She hurried after the dog, following him into the darkened bedroom. What she saw stunned her…

—August 22nd is the 16th annual Be An Angel Day, celebrated throughout North America and several other countries.  The day encourages us to give thanks for angels by imitating them.  That is, doing acts of kindness, and helping others (anonymously if that’s possible—just like angels often do!) The type of angelic help you can offer is not defined or limited. It can be physical, emotional, or spiritual. Think about paying a stranger’s toll, sending a card to someone who needs cheering up (sign it, Your Secret Pal) or if you can afford it, buy some groceries for a family out of work and leave them on the porch.  What goes around comes around, and God, who sees in secret, will send you a special hug.

—Do any of you know of a blog or two aimed at younger moms?  Can you recommend them to me?  (joan@joanwanderson.com)  I’ll tell you about this in a week or two.

—The Cayces report that you are sending school supplies and other necessities, and they are able to make hundreds of Back to School bags for the kids.  You guys are awesome.

And now here’s a shortie but goodie:
“The good Lord must know when I’m out of my comfort zone,” says Marlene Creech who lives on a pension, “because that’s when interesting things happen!”  One day Marlene could not get on line.  Her computer kept flashing the message that her dial-up server was down.  After two or three tries, Marlene quit.  (Don’t we all know how she felt?)

The “server is down” message continued for another few days, and finally Marlene called the company.  “The automated phone systems are not easy for me at my age,” she says (and don’t we all know how she felt?) “but finally I reached a person, and told him the problem.”  After checking, the man told her that her dial-up phone number was bad, and she needed to get a new one.

“The problem here is that there are no more local numbers available,” he told Marlene. “You’ll have to choose one of three long distance numbers.” Marlene never thought to ask if there would be a change in cost for this.  She chose a number, and used it for a month.  And when she received her phone bill she almost fainted.  The bill was $257.

How could this bill be so much higher than usual?  “With my budget being so tight, I had to call them again, get myself through the automated system again, and tell my story to two or three people before reaching an employee who understood what I was asking,” she says.

“Your town only has one local number to get on line, and it’s perfectly fine,” he told her.

“Then why did that other man tell me that my line was bad?” she asked.  This employee had no answer, just the suggestion that she return to the local number, which she did. (And don’t we all know how she felt?)

“The next day I called the phone company again, this time to see if I could set up payments on this large bill, as my pension was already stretched to the limit,” Marlene says.  By now she was a pro at navigating the automated phone system, and she ended up with yet a third employee, to whom she repeated the entire story. “Let me look up your account,” he suggested.  A few moments later he came back to the phone, a bit puzzled.  “A deduction to your account was made yesterday,” he told her.  “You have a balance of $85, not $257.”

It was the exact amount of the long distance overcharge, Marlene realized.  Although she had not gotten angry or even complained, someone (maybe an Earth Angel?) had taken pity on her and removed the charges.  “The encounter left me so thankful,” Marlene says.  “Many times we receive blessings, and don’t even know it.”

And don’t we all know how she felt?

—Those of you who have been here for awhile know that I do two commercials a year, one at Christmas, and one for Mother’s Day.  I hate asking people to buy my books, especially now when most of us are counting our pennies.  However, bringing the stories to you every other week does cost money as well as time, and I have realized lately that if everyone on our angel list purchased one of my books each year, these expenses would be covered.  One annual $15 book doesn’t sound too difficult for most, especially if you buy it as a gift for someone.  (Hence, the commercial for Mother’s Day).  And a book also helps you be an ambassador for the angels, spreading the good news to someone who especially needs it now.
The website http://joanwanderson.com has all the information and books descriptions you need, and you can order from me and receive an autographed book.  However, www.amazon.com offers the books at a discount, which can make it even easier (but no autograph).  And just a thought—I have an updated version of an older book, WHERE MIRACLES HAPPEN scheduled to come out in September.  If you’d rather wait til then, no problem.  As always, it’s completely up to you. Thanks.

—A new member has offered her opinion of a dvd just available from Blockbusters.  “Angel Wars, The Messengers is a new 3-d animated adventure series about angelic warfare.  It’s put out by Fox Faith, and is quite good.  The kids were entertained and educated a bit– decent amount of scriptural references.”  Families need this information, and Blockbuster is also a family friendly business and deserves our support.  Thanks again!  And here’s the story:

Sam from New Jersey writes of a time when he was twenty years old, and living a somewhat reckless life.  His friend Jimmy was the instigator of much of the trouble the two got into, but Sam didn’t have the will power to avoid Jimmy completely.  One night after midnight, the two were driving around looking for something to do, when Jimmy decided to break into a store nearby.  There was a particular item in the store that he wanted, and no one would be there at this hour.  Why not steal it?

Sam protested loudly, but Jimmy was persuasive.  “I was easily led and confused about life,” Sam says.  “It isn’t an excuse, just an explanation for why Jimmy eventually argued me into helping him.”  Sam drove Jimmy to Jimmy’s house where he got his crowbar. Then Sam drove up and parked behind the store, and the youths got out.  It was extremely quiet, no traffic, few sounds.  There were houses facing the back of the store, just fifty or sixty yards away, but they were all in darkness.  Sam looked around in fear. His heart was starting to race.  But Jimmy picked up the crowbar, and wedged it into the crack of the heavy steel door.  “Let’s do it!”

The young men took turns prying, Sam looking nervously around.  Odd that there were no people anywhere. “Every time the crowbar slipped out of the crack, the door would slam shut again, making a shattering sound that bounced off the houses behind us,” Sam says.  “My heart was pounding by now—I had never committed a real crime before, and I was waiting for someone to come running out of those houses.”  They were making far too much noise, and they were going to be caught any minute now.  He knew it. Jimmy, however, was single-minded and even excited.  “We’ll get in soon!” he kept telling Sam.  “Keep going!”

They worked at the door for almost an hour, making a huge racket as the steel on the door creaked and snapped back.  Jimmy accidentally dropped the crowbar on the concrete a few times, and jammed it inside the door.  Finally, as they both pushed, the door gave way.  Quickly they stepped inside, waiting for their eyes to adjust to the darkness.  Jimmy saw it first—a room with food, a refrigerator, a counter for food preparation…  “Holy cow! The store owner lives here!” 

But where was he?  Why hadn’t he investigated? Suddenly they heard noises coming from the front of the store.  Someone had finally been awakened, and was coming after them!  “We bolted for the door and ran to the car,” says Sam.  “I turned the ignition and hit the gas so hard that the tires shrieked.”  Whoever was in the store would surely come after them now.  “Slow down!” Jimmy told Sam.  “Drive down the side of the building, and around to the street.”

“No way!” Sam protested.  “If someone’s out in front, we’ll get caught for sure.”
“It’s the only way out–just DO it!” Jimmy argued, and as usual, Sam capitulated.

“I drove down the side of the building, and when we passed the wall and could see the front of the store, what was sitting there but a cop car!,” Sam says.  “No lights on, no siren, everything dark.  I almost died right there.”  But Jimmy was still alert.

“Easy, Sam,” he directed.  “Just keep going nice and slow, and pull onto the street.  Make a right turn and drive quietly past the front of the store.”

Sam obeyed, and as they drove by, they got a good look.  There was only one police officer there, probably the source of the noise that had frightened them.  “He was halfway into the store,” Sam says, “holding his gun way out in front of him with both hands, ready to shoot.  I knew then how lucky I was.”

Sam dropped Jimmy off, and went home, his heart still pounding.  It was the last time he would get involved with Jimmy, he knew.  He was at a fork in his personal road, and he was going to go the right way.  And he did. 

But he has continued to think about the episode.  “Why didn’t anyone hear the tremendous racket we made the whole time we were there?” he wonders.  “Why was there only one police officer instead of the usual two—they could have blocked off the exits and caught us easily.  And why didn’t the one that was there hear my tires squealing and come around to catch us?”  All Sam can believe is that God was looking out for him that night.  “I have wondered if the police officer was really my guardian angel, sending me a serious warning,” he says. 

What do you think?

Friends, this story is being published on www.guideposts.com today too.  They love comments, so if you have one about this story, you might want to post it there.  Click www.guideposts.com, then click the Faith and Inspiration tab, and you should see this story.  Leave a comment at the end.