While it was raining very early on a cool July Sunday morning, I looked out the window and saw something setting on our lawn furniture under the overhang of the house. These record-setting cool temperature settings on the third week of July in 2004 are unusual, so the small black and white dog was shivering in the cool July morning rain. Curled up on lawn furniture, the small dog with big eyes and a stubby nose looked plaintively at the window where I stared at the animal. It was just breaking light, and I was the only one awake in the house to make decisions on how to extend a helping hand to this little creature in distress. Since we already had a dog and a cat in the house, we do not need another animal to care for, and a jealous dog that growled at all intruders and barely tolerated the present feline resident made me stare at the forlorn dog begging to be let in out of the rain. Compassion for an animal in distress finally made me go to the door and see if there was a tag with an owner's name. I opened the door to see what it was, and a small black-and-white Peek-a-poo dog was sitting on the back stoop. The dog pranced into the house like it owned the place, looked around, and curled up and went to sleep.

Years ago I had laid down the law, there would be no animals in the house, they belong outside! That statement had no bearing on my love of all living things, it was just a mandate based on having a clean and orderly house. Dogs and cats were always outside in my upbringing, as the mess they made in the house was an extra burden to the already overworked females who contributed to my early formative years. Three sisters and a mother that worked hard in the house and the fields had little extra time to bother with cat and dog hairs and the extra work that goes on with other accidents that can occur. I soon gave in to my mandate of no animals in the house to a wife who wanted a dog before our daughter was born, and the daughter even added a cat to the menagerie in the house. It was strange after making the beginning statement in this paragraph that each animal always found the way to my lap, and seemed to prefer that position when I was sitting to other family members' equal opportunity laps.

This dog that wondered into our lives that cold and rainy July morning has a real personality! He pranced through the house, checked out all the rooms and sniffed all the people, then curled under the coffee table and took a nap. After a short snooze, it woke and waddled to my daughter's room and jumped up on the bed with her to wake her. She was delighted, as all the dogs and cats we have had in her childhood years would never bond with her as we had wished. Even though the previous pets were adopted to be her animals, they gradually made their bonds of affection with her parents. Since this was a dog that appeared at our doorstep, we were careful not to get too attached emotionally to an animal that someone else was surely looking for.

We later fed and watered it, my daughter gave it a bath, and we found a rabies tag issued by the local vet from the year 2000 with a number. We called the vet Monday morning, the phone number they gave us for the owner was disconnected. We then drove by the address, and could find no house there. We suspect that house might have been torn down since 2000, as there were some bare lots between the numbers before and after the listed address, and it is in a neighborhood of older residences. We called the local radio station and reported a found dog, and walked the neighborhood with the pet on a leash, but so far nobody has claimed this stranger that came to our door. Knowing that it is still possible somebody might be missing this great little pet, we took a chance and gave it a name, Hobo. We are willing to give up this lovable animal, but deep in our hearts, we hope the owner has abandoned it.

What is a Hobo, isn't that some kind of homeless person?

The word hobo has almost been lost from current vocabulary; it came from a period I only remember hearing about as a child. The generation of my parents tell about a time following the Great Depression in the United States when people out of work and homeless would roam the country side, often begging for food and a dry place to sleep for the night before moving on to another location. Many of them would split wood, mow the grass, or perform other household tasks of the day in exchange for small favors of daily existence. Since they were often proud people, they were willing to work for the small favors requested, as opposed to what were called bums, who would never work. It was a sad time in our history when many investors were quickly stripped of their savings, lost their houses, and often were cast adrift to wander the country in search of food and shelter. My generation was told about these victims of the Great Depression over and over as a warning, but most of us found better lifestyles, thanks to families that helped us have a better existence and become very conservative in our lifestyles.

The Great Depression will never happen again, right?

We have been told over and over that there are safeguards in our economic systems that will prevent such a happening again. Federal Deposit Insurance on bank accounts secure our checking accounts to prevent another run on banks as happened in 1929, and federal watchdogs are careful to watch over the stock market to stop abuse of funds before it can cause another market crash. Still, there are some ominous clouds on the financial horizons for us to study, and make any preparations we can to preserve our hard-earned funds. Too many people today have no concept of those dark days when many friends and neighbors had to pull together to use their collective strengths to help each provide for only basic needs. Too many people today think they are poor when they have food in their mouths, a car in the garage, and a roof over their heads.

It is difficult to offer this reminder from the past and a warning to be a bit more conservative in our financial lives without being called "Chicken Little", and accused of crying that the sky is falling. There are many good things going on in the world today, and one must take financial chances to make gains in their bank accounts.

But, just as the July weather made record cool temperatures, financial cooling could well happen again also. It is good to keep history in mind as we make our future financial ventures.

-©John Dappert 2004