• For your high tolerance of pain, which has taught your family to never quit, no matter how tough things may get.
• For your devotion and dedication to your 50 plus years of marriage, so much that Debbie & Darlene and I still remain married to the loves of our youth.
• For the Godly heritage of faith that's been passed down to your grandchildren (Alessi, Giarratana & Rivera).
• For staying active and always being the beautiful blonde that just wants all of us to be together and have fun.

Since becoming the Dogfather a few weeks ago, with the arrival of the new puppies came a new morning schedule. Usually just around sunrise I hear the barking of momma Stasia coming from the garage, and like this morning that means it's time for me to get up and go help her out with her babies. Today was especially funny as I opened the door for only two of the pups were in their "den", which is the plastic pool they've been living in for the last month. The others learned how to crawl out and were spread all over the garage in corners, under the motorcycle and up next to the warm water heater, and like a new frantic mother her bark seemed to say to me, "Help...these children just won't listen to me."

The prolific Leadership Guru John Maxwell is quoted as saying, “Everything rises and falls on Leadership.” That one phrase over the years has spoken to me about my own need not to just follow good leaders, but even more importantly, to be a great leader so I can contribute to the society I live in and inspire those around me.

Just call me The Don. No, not the Mob Boss...the Dog Dad.

As of 10:00 PM Monday, April 30th, my beautiful German Shepherd, Stasia, gave birth to 9 cute little pups and now my family has just extended its territory to include the garage, which has upped my list of titles to include Dog Breeder.

Since I was a kid, I've always loved German Shepherds and I've had plenty of the breed over the years. At first I was real creative with their unique names as I started with AJ, then BJ, then CJ, DJ, and then Mattie, which was my little sister's nickname given her by an old family friend. I even picked up a German Shepherd in my last year of college, which got me sent home and suspended from Southeastern University for a week. The administration said it had something to do with me being a "rebellious" Bible College student. Go figure. My last one we named King, but with raising kids and starting the Church, I just didn't have the time to devote to training him the way he deserved, so we gave him to a family that owned a ranch.

And then came Anastasia, the beauty I've been waiting for. Big, black and tan, and sweet as a dog can be. It was our goal from the beginning to breed her and I wanted a big, black, strong male out of the litter. When the time was right, we connected her with a male by the name of Kato and pregnant she became and for the last 60 days we've been anticipating the birth of her pups. I never dreamed this breeding and birthing thing could be so exciting and yet so dirty at the same time. OMG, this wasn't at all what I expected. Our four kids being born at Baptist Hospital was a lot cleaner than having these pups. I mean sure, the newborn puppies are so cute and cuddly with their little eyes closed as they enter the world, but there's also this other stuff that's coming out of Stasia everywhere and it's not that cute at all. Give me a barf bag quick. I'm getting dizzy and the room is spinning fast. And what is that smell? I don't remember reading anything on Google about the interesting odor birthing pups would emit into the air. I had no idea being a Dogfather would be such a bloody and ugly mess.

Then again, I guess if you want to expand your family, influence, business or otherwise, things can get pretty messy. Dreams have a lot less headaches when they're experienced in our sleep. It's when you try to put flesh on them that reality wakes you up to a whole different experience that requires change and growth, and that in itself is a dirty, bloody, ugly mess.

We're told that one of the fears many people experience in life is the fear of success. When I first heard that I thought to myself, "who could be that fearful?" Then I learned it's not that people fear the fun or the experiences that success can bring them, it's the pain, the sacrifice, the adjustments and changes that need to be made on the way to achieving success. But that's exactly what's required if living larger than we presently are is desired. It's one thing to manage life, but it's another thing to expand our lives and territory.

I'm a little nervous not knowing exactly what lies ahead for our family, Stasia, and the cute little nine pups. I've already been on the phone a number of times with the Doggy Doctor and Breeder just to make sure we're doing everything right. Momma Stasia is doing what female Shepherd's do when they have their babies and the little pups are making all kinds of noises. So far, it's been middle of the night checks and plenty of sweeping, moping, feeding, cleaning, waiting and watching. And that sounds exactly like what all of us will have to do when we get on the road to seeing our dreams come true.

OK, now I need your help naming our 4 males and 5 female puppies. Any suggestions?