| We are sad to report that our oldest contributor, Monica Agnew-Kinnaman, died at age 106 on May 24th. She was sharp as a tack right to the end and was still contributing beautifully written, entertaining stories to our books. Monica was an amazing woman. Born in Britain, she served in the British Army during World War II in the anti-artillery division, where she was assigned to gun sites that fired on German planes as they flew bombing missions over England. (She was supposed to be one of the WWII veterans who attended a commemoration in France on June 1st, but she missed it by a week.) She met her first husband during the war and had a son who was raised in England. Later, she divorced and moved to the U.S. where she met her second husband—thus the hyphenated name. How many 106-year-old women have a hyphenated last name? Very modern of her! That’s when she had her daughter, who has been keeping us up to date on her mother’s various activities during the last few years. Monica received many degrees over the next few decades, even earning her PhD in psychology at age 70 after a career as an RN. She published many books in her later years, mostly focusing on her many beloved rescue dogs and on miracles. We published eight of Monica’s stories in Chicken Soup for the Soul books and we are featuring one of them today in this newsletter. If you’d like to see this amazing woman in action, you can watch this TV segment from May 6th, the day she talked about WWII to a group of fifth-graders. To watch the interview click here.
Juneau
From Chicken Soup for the Soul: My Very Good, Very Bad Dog
By Monica Agnew-Kinnaman Fun fact: Whole genome sequencing indicates that domesticated dogs and gray wolves are descended from a common extinct wolf ancestor 27,000–40,000 years ago. I first started my wonderfully fulfilling journey into the world of animal rescue eighty-seven years ago, at the age of ten. Although each creature, large or small, was precious, there was one that formed a special bond with me and will remain forever in my heart. Born in the mountains, Juneau was the descendant of an adventurous Husky that had invaded the wild-wolf gene pool many generations before her birth. While adopting wild animals of any kind into the home as “pets” or companions is not recommended, Juneau’s small percentage of dog genes precluded any thought of abandoning her to the wild where, without wolf parents to guide and nurture her, she would soon perish. This little wolf pup needed someone to care for her, and that someone happened to be me. (Keep reading) | 