Page 28 2026 Animal Stories Lincoln Daily News February 2026 Karen Castelein When someone asks me if I have a pet I immediately smile and say yes! Currently I have a ten-year-old Yorkie named Zookie. She hasn’t been my dog for that whole time, but I have lived in the same house with her since she was six weeks old. My best friend, Kaye, bought her from a little Amish boy near Arthur, IL. Kaye had seen an ad in the Pantagragh for Yorkie puppies and wanted us to go see them. I knew if we went we would come home with one and I was excited to go on this adventure with her. It was about four in the afternoon and all the paper had was a phone number to call. So Kaye called and had to leave a message. Waiting was not an option. Knowing we would need to travel about an hour to get near Arthur she said let’s go. I’m thinking we don’t know where we are going! But off we went. We were on the other side of Decatur and I was feeling like the owners might be gone for the evening and may not return her call till morning. And I knew she wanted a female pup and I was wondering if they had even had one available. My excitement was turning to doubt but Kaye had reasoned that since it was in Amish country we were probably waiting for them to notice the phone booth had a message waiting for them. Sure enough she was right. We are about two miles till Arthur when the phone rang and the man told us he had a female pup available and asked where we were so he could direct us to the house. I swear we were within a half mile of our turn! Then we had another three miles to go in the blackest of night. Thankfully the stop signs were every mile with the man staying on the phone till we got to the third sign. He said their house was the first one on the right. It was so black. But all of a sudden I saw a hitching rail so we slowed down. We still couldn’t see a house but then a little lantern came out of the darkness. It was the man and his son coming from the back of the house to greet us. They led us around the house to the back porch and then into their kitchen where the
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MzExODA=