By Deb Duer

The Island News is saying good-bye to Tracie Korol, the author of the wonderful BowWOW! articles on pets. She has been writing for The Island News for as long as the paper has been around, since 2008. We would like to give our sincere thanks to Tracie for her contribution to the Beaufort Community and wish her the best as she moves on to Portland, OR. I asked her if she had any parting thoughts for our readers and this is what she said:

“I guess my final message might be--be an advocate for the creature that loves you the most. A real advocate. Don’t accept anything that concerns your animal at face value. Look it up (that’s why we have the google machine), talk to people, get a second opinion, do some research, read the labels.  Think about things.  No one is going to love you more than your dog does. No one. No one is going to accept you just the way you are-- warts, farts, bad singing, bad hair, buck naked under fluorescent light, and all. For that level of acceptance, we owe our Best Friends the effort.”

The Island News would like to invite a new writer to take over the Pets section in the paper. If anyone is interested please submit a proposal to theislandnews@gmail.com.

<em>Look for Tracie Korol’s last Pets feature in next week’s issue.</em>