Fool readers are lucky. It's easy to avoid my babbling about Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) valuation, the craziness at Taser (NASDAQ:TASR), or the legal woes at Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) when you're on the end of a mouse.
You can't ignore me when you sit at the next desk. As my colleagues will attest, if I'm not spewing about the awesome video game I picked up at Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) or Electronics Boutique (NASDAQ:ELBO), or bragging about the mayhem potential of my latest power tool from Home Depot (NYSE:HD), I'm probably talking about dogs. A recent tale went something like this:
I saw this dog on the subway the other day, and it could do the most amazing trick. It could remain absolutely still, relaxing on the floor, while busy straphangers stepped past, over, and sometime onto it. I'm a fair hand at dog training myself, but if my golden retriever were on a full commuter train, all riders within a 30-foot radius would emerge from the car with pawprints on their shirts, nose prints where the sun don't shine, and the belief that canines' IQs must rank somewhere between mushroom and tap water.
That's why this particular dog's behavior was so impressive. When the proper stop arrived, the retriever calmly stood up and led its wheelchair-bound mistress off the train. This is all in a day's work for a dog from Foolanthropy 2004 partner Canine Companions for Independence (CCI). These incredible pups change the lives of thousands of people. Some provide service, such as turning on lights and retrieving items for disabled partners who cannot do this themselves. Some work with the hearing impaired, and some provide therapeutic benefits in health-care and education environments.
Believe me, it takes a will of steel to keep your eyes from leaking when you see a Labrador retriever help someone confined to a wheelchair become free and confident, or when a smooch from a golden brings a smile and cry to the face of a bed-ridden patient who hasn't said a word in days.
For its efforts to help others -- and help others help themselves -- CCI is one of our 2004 Foolanthropy picks. I urge you to consider helping it with its incredible work. If you prefer, put some of your good fortune toward a home, a book, or even a water buffalo. Or help Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan improve life for the locals, one small project at a time. Your investment in dogs, infrastructure, or livestock may not offer a yield that you can figure in a spreadsheet, but it will pay big dividends inside. And we all need some of that.
For related Foolishness:
- What is Foolanthropy?
- Get more information on how the Fool will be pitching in this holiday season, from co-founder David Gardner.
- Discuss the campaign with other interested Fools.
Seth Jayson loves dogs, so long as they're not in his portfolio. At the time of publication, he had no positions in any company mentioned. View his stock holdings and Fool profile here. Fool rules are here.
