About Barks at Strangers
Needing a repository for all of the ramblings and musings inspired by rescuing Maisie, a pint-sized mutt with a gallon-sized personality, I started Barks at Strangers, a weekly bi-monthly whenever-I-can-squeeze-in-some-time blog dedicated to all the ways in which our non-human companions teach us about ourselves, inspire us to be better humans, make us laugh and make us cry, but mostly, show us how to open up our wounded hearts and let a little more light in. Â
About Maisie
Maisie, a 17 pound Corgi-Spaniel-Terrior (our best guess) mutt, channels her instructions on life through her somewhat misguided, often leash-reactive, sometimes barks-at-strangers but ultimately kind-hearted human companion (that would be me). She fired her little soul into my heart with her unwavering and intense gaze my first day volunteering at the shelter and now she lives with me and another less-than-perfect human, sometimes referred to as “Daddy”.
About Lauryn
My name is Lauryn Shapter and I live with Maisie and my beautiful husband in a small town in rural Iowa. I love to write…songs and poetry, short fiction and creative non-fiction. I sing. I garden (or attempt to garden). I walk Maisie, a lot. My main gig is to write, record, and play music with my husband in a little band called Society of Broken Souls. Maisie is our road manager and though she truthfully gets very little done, she does offer her ears and her belly at the end of the night in whatever hotel in whichever town we may find ourselves in.
Thanks for visiting and for sharing, if you are so inspired; I’d love to hear from you. Maisie has her leash on. Shall we go for a walk together?
Barks at Strangers 