By Mimi and Hootch

Oh, sweet Bobby McGee, if only you could tell us your story. Were you born with the physical challenges that you bear with such grace and good humor? Did someone literally kick you out into the streets because they couldn’t understand you — or didn’t have the small measure of patience it takes to love you?

Bobby McGee is available for adoption at ARF.

We say you have special needs, then succumb to your charm as you prance and dance around us like a tiny deer. So, exactly what are these needs of yours — needs that will seem so inconsequential to the right person, who will measure instead the love and devotion that pour from your generous, immense heart.

Yes, it’s true you will need to wear absorbant britches (ix-nay the diaper word, puhleeze!) or be taken outside every couple of hours. And, you like to stay close to your person, but you’re so good outside for awhile as long as it’s a safe, secure place. Sure, you are partially blind in one eye, but that doesn’t in the least keep you from gazing with loyalty and appreciation at anyone showing you the slightest affection and attention.

OK, so it takes you a little effort to get from point A to point B, and you don’t always make it in a straight line, but you do get where you’re going. Clumsy? Oh, please, who isn’t from time to time? And, you play comfortably with cats and other dogs. You don’t care how big they are and they don’t care about your “special needs.”

Oh, sweet Bobby, your person is out there with a forever home — someone who is reading this right now, hesitating a little bit because it is a commitment, after all. But maybe this person has their own special needs that only you can meet — you healthy, happy, wonderful little dog.

Bobby can be seen at ARF, along with several other dogs and cats available for adoption or fostering. Go to www.idyllwildarf.org and click on Petfinder. ARF is open on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Call (951) 659-1122 or e-mail [email protected].

Creature corner is sponsored this week in memory of Milo the wolfhound. To sponsor the column, call Shane Fender at the Town Crier, 659-2145.