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Welcome to back-to-school – or as I like to call it, “Let's see how fast we can spend every penny in the checking account.” Oh sure, there is a lot of excitement about summer ending - the house will stay clean for longer than five minutes and food may actually remain in the fridge until well after 2:05 p.m. (for those of you unfamiliar with the teenage species, 2:05 p.m. is their version of the crack of dawn).

hed: Dogs teach people valuable lessonsdek: Training new pets allowed columnist time to become involved in communityJohn McKay • Our [email protected] Saturday after Thanksgiving Michelle and I hit the road on a long awaited getaway with our two “kids”—our Lancashire Heelers Sonny and Abby. They’re dogs. We took our faithful van, Charlie, so we could load up the kids and be comfortable out on the road for days on end without a dog’s nose stuck in the back of my head the entire time.We do a lot to maintain a household with two dogs that most would not consider model canine citizens. But these two dogs have played a key role in how I got involved with the Morgan Hill community.Back in late 2009 I finally got laid off from a job that I had not enjoyed, to put it mildly. Normally this could be the beginning of a sad story but for me it was the beginning of a multi-faceted journey, one that continues today.We decided that it would be a good opportunity to get a couple of dogs, train them, and then drop them off at a kennel on the way to that new job I would find. I found the perfect dog in a book on dog breeds and we found a pair that were six months old—a little older than preferred but the only ones to be found. At this point I want to say that we had lost a pair of dogs that we had for about 16 years, so we were no newcomers to the canine world but we weren’t prepared for what came next.Puppies are adorable. Is there a bad puppy? We took a pair of siblings, a no-no in the dog world, and promptly found out that they had spent six months in a kennel with no other dogs or people except their immediate family. They were never socialized and they were fearful, which is a bad combination.We got the pups home and immediately realized something was wrong. The male couldn’t even walk to the street corner without collapsing and shaking out of fear. We didn’t know what was going on so we found a doggie psychologist, Daphne Robert-Hamilton, who told us that the male was so fearful that it might be best just to put him down. Sonny had been with us only a week but there was no way we could do that to this little guy who looked at me with complete trust in those humanlike, expressive, brown eyes. Besides, they were family now and you don’t give up on family.We embarked on a long journey of training (actually called behavior modification) that included short walks within his comfort level. He slowly got used to cars, kids on bikes and eventually people walking by. We also took Abby out and started training her too but her issues were far less severe. The pair will apparently never be good around other dogs but we accept this now and conduct ourselves with that in mind.Sonny couldn’t be left alone because a common symptom of a fearful dog is separation anxiety. We worked on that by going out the door and back in at first for a few seconds, then minutes, and over a period of months it became hours.After some time, Michelle and I could go about our lives in an almost normal manner. But the sacrifices we make for our kids are acceptable to us because of what we have gotten back.To see Sonny run around the house like a normal dog and dive into a bag of groceries or knock a stack of empty boxes over and push them around makes us just smile and remember the journey to this point.Sonny is my hero. He has overcome an unfair disadvantage in life not of his doing. He is a survivor.Abby is just so darn cute that she gets away with anything. Funny how that works.Working with Sonny kept me from work long enough that I could get involved with our community. I wouldn’t be writing this column or know many of you reading this if it wasn’t for this pair of psycho dogs.We are perfectly happy traveling in Charlie and seeing the world through four sets of eyes wide open.—John McKay is a longtime Morgan Hill resident, a city planning commissioner and a member of the Morgan Hill Tourism Alliance.

As I look at my calendar for April I see lots of things going on, not the least of which is April 15—a date that still sneaks up on me every year no matter how often I prepare myself.So compared to dealing with the only other thing that I can’t avoid besides death, everything else looks pretty good. But then everything I’m about to mention is pretty good.I’ve been working on an oversized wooden resort chair that should be unveiled soon as part of the downtown public art mini-grant projects.This is a nine-foot-tall Adirondack chair so it will be hard to miss once it’s parked. This is just one piece of several soon to land downtown this month with the promise to add more elements of interest to the downtown placemaking effort.Down the street where the old liquor store used to be on Third Street and Monterey Road you will see a mini-grant mural revealing itself as soon as this weekend. But besides art the old liquor store will also be the home of something else new—a “bike HUB.” What is a bike HUB? Thought you’d never ask…I’ll define bike HUB for this location as a place where bicyclists can gather, park their bike and maybe get some minor emergency repairs or adjustments performed. Part of each Saturday starting in April the location will be staffed so you can feel comfortable knowing your bike is safe while you stroll around the downtown shopping and dining. As part of the downtown art mini-grants, there will also be a bike fix it station out front along with a very cool old time map of California bike routes. A local bicycling advocacy group, “Bike Morgan Hill,” will take care of the bike racks and volunteer staffing. With the increasing numbers of bicyclists downtown the bike HUB is sure to add a convenience that will be appreciated by many.Last weekend was the first “Indie Market” put together by the folks at the Morgan Hill Downtown Association. The west side of Monterey Road between First and Fourth streets saw colorful canopies erected by local independent home based businesses now offering a great outdoor venue. The event drew crowds of people and there was more activity downtown on a Sunday than most of us are used to—but could very easily get accustomed to. This will be repeated again on April 26.This is also the month when those of us who love wine turn our focus to downtown.Wine Week will kick off April 19 and is loaded with more events than ever. This year will also include a celebration of the numerous awards our local wineries are winning with a special event along with the exceptional slate of wine education, wine maker dinners and wine tastings established for this week. Wine Week will end with the Wine Stroll which annually brings more than a thousand visitors to the downtown sampling wine and getting exposed to the Morgan Hill we know and love.Get ready for April, that date in the middle is always a rough one but on either side are days filled with fun things to see and do in your town.John McKay is a longtime Morgan Hill resident, city planning commissioner and a member of the Morgan Hill Tourism Alliance.