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Today we honor the contributions and achievements of American workers. Labor Day was created by the Labor movement in the late 19th Century and became a federal holiday in 1894. It is observed on the first Monday in September. Labor Day also symbolizes the end of the summer as Americans gear up for the last quarter of the year.

Sammy always respected the working man as that is exactly how he started his journey.

Happy Labor Day friends.

You have to be cognizant of your surroundings and pay attention to the people around you.

On April 21st 2008 my mother had her aortic valve replaced. A valve normally lasts for 12 to 15 years. My mother turned 77 years old on July 3rd. I did a birthday post of she and I at Olive Gardens if you remember.

I started noticing my mother was having similar symptoms like back in 2008: short of breath, really weak and looking very grey. Meaning her circulation was severely comprised. If you go back to that birthday post a few weeks ago, you can see what I’m talking about.

On Wednesday night July 22nd, my mother’s symptoms went into a tailspin. The next day I checked her into the hospital and 8 days later they replaced her valve. Her life was saved and the quality of her life restored.

A Toast to Rosy cheeks and Circulation as you can see.

I’ve been longing for just a moment with Sammy and Patrick again. Last night I got a little taste of that while out with my childhood friends, Lloyd and Stacey Lapidus.

This is Riley here in the picture with me. He’s a 20 year old Pomeranian. Yep, 20 years old. He’s very sweet and lively. I was holding him similarly to the way I used to hold Sammy. – Riley flowed very well with it.

Between my childhood friends, Pomeranian Riley and my Patrick tattoo, if only for a moment, life lit up the sky for me last night.

Maybe it’s true what Albert Einstein says:
“Energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be changed from one form to another.”

I never wanted kids. I even got divorced in 2001 to a woman that I loved very much to avoid having them. I’ve never played one activity with a child in my life. I’ve never taken my nieces or nephews to a ballgame hoping to win one for the gipper. It’s just not my bag. Animal Welfare is my bag.

But, what’s that got to do with science???

North Carolina told the President he CAN’T have the Convention in their state. The POTUS then changed the venue to Florida. – Just 3 days later, Trump cancelled the convention saying “It’s not the right time.”

There are 7 billion people in the world. Yet, there’s only one person who refused to wear a mask the past 6 months. His name is Donald Trump. He finally put a mask on his face 10 days ago for the first time in public. Let that serve as the loudest alarm you’ve ever heard regarding your kids’ safety.

Thoughts, prayers & Jesus did nothing to stop the Mass Shooting Epidemic in the US. They’ll also do Nothing to stop with Coronvirus.

Parents, STICK WITH SCIENCE. – Make your own decisions about sending your kids back to school. Relying on an administration that’s devoid of reality is playing Russian Roulette with your kids.

I wouldn’t take those risks for my Pups!!!

In December of 2017, my family and I made our 1st political donation of our lives. You can see AOC thanking us in this picture. Our Twitter handle was ELSandFamily back then in the name of Sammy. Today, our handle is @DWCompassion.

I’ve been following AOC since Hurricane Maria. She only had 2000 followers at that time. Her tweets had such an authentic tone to them. I’m not surprised she has 8 million followers now. AOC lost her grandfather during the Hurricane as some of you know. She was extremely vocal about the pain the island was experiencing.

Every Tuesday night AOC would throw fundraisers for 1 to 5 dollars. A pure grass roots organizer. We gave her 50 bucks. That was a lot of money back then. Still is to be honest.

Whether you like her politics or not, AOC proved the American dream is still alive, well and for the taking. She’s a future POTUS in my opinion.

I’d like credit Sammy for this nice piece of history. ELS stands for Everybody Loves Sammy as you know.

An Officer and A Gentleman –

Sammy was a solider for Humanity. He represented all that’s good in the world for animals and people. Sammy was a bright light in a sometimes very cold world for 15 years.

He was so lit up on the inside that he shined on his exterior.

Happy 4th of July.

On the Morning of June 17th at 9:00 am, my Lucky hopped the fence and went missing. Between the phone calls, texts, emails, social media and driving around, I had about 25 people helping me find him in Dade County, Miami. By 11 pm, he’d been missing for 13 hours.

At 11:30 pm I got a call from someone telling me that a black dog was picked up by Miami Dade Animal Control at 7:30 pm. The woman sent me the picture that she saw on Animal Control’s website. That picture is on the right. I was 90 percent sure that it was Lucky, but that’s only because I know everything about him.

Does that picture on the right really do him justice? Not at all. Lucky actually looks like the picture on the left. How many other dogs and cats are waiting in shelters to be adopted or on death row because of a poor quality and blurry pictures?

That’s were HeARTs Speak steps in. The organization is comprised of 600 photographers spread across the US and 20 other countries. The photographers go into shelters with professional studio equipment and give the rescues the best chance possible of being adopted.

Each year HeARTs Speak increases the visibility of over 1 million shelter animals around the world. They are the first line of defense for the animals. Lisa Prince Fishler founded HeARTs Speak in 2009 based on her own experience in the adoption process with shelters. Even before the digital explosion the world has experienced in the last decade, Fishler knew that great pictures were the ticket out of shelters and into loving homes.

Friends, I’ve always felt a pit in my stomach for shelter animals. So much so that I’ve never had the courage to walk into a shelter until the morning of June 18th to pick up Lucky. I have been involved in rescues with sheltered animals and personally pulled many animals out of the streets, but never in a shelter until June 18th. I just find it way too heartbreaking.

HeARTs Speak understands people feel that way. That’s precisely why they go into the shelters for us and give the animals the exposure they need. HeART’s Speak even provides compassion fatigue counseling for their photographers knowing how emotional the experience can be. Keep Hearts Speak on your networks. They are an integral part of the animal rescue world.

Her best friend described Toyin as a Sad Girl With the Happiest Spirit.

Nigerian American, Tallahassee Born, Toyin Salu had a very hard life. She came from an abusive family, she’d been sexually assaulted several times and was a victim of sex trafficking. Toyin was taking refuge with local churches and friends during her last days. Anytime she and her friends reached out to the police and lawyers, it always fell on deaf ears.

In the midst of her extremely hard life, Toyin was an active participant and speaker at the Black Lives Matter protest in Tallahassee, Florida. You can see her video on Twitter protesting after transgender black man, Tony McDade was killed by police on May 27th. The video will knock your socks off. It’s hard to believe she was only 19 years old.

On June 6th, down on her luck again, Toyin accepted a ride back to church by a man dressed as a man of God. He offered her a place to sleep for the night, a shower and some clean clothes. Toyin accepted.

By the morning, she had been molested and escaped at 5:30 am in the man’s clothes. Toyin found the poise and composure to report all this over twitter. I have 5 of the tweets below. This is her Twitter account: @virgingrltoyin if you want to see all of them.

The tweets below were the last time anyone had seen or heard from Toyin again. On Saturday, June 13th, she was found murdered. The killer is in custody. It’s unclear if the murderer and molester are the same person. But, what is clear, is she had a life of hell and the system failed her. I’ll make some closing comments after the tweets.

Tweets below:

“Anyways I was molested in Tallahassee, Florida by a black man this morning at 5:30 on Richview and Park Ave. The man offered to give me a ride to find someplace to sleep and recollect my belongings from a church I refuged to a couple days back to escape unjust living conditions.”

“Going back to the situation that happened to me this morning, I did not fall asleep. He then asked me if I wanted a massage at this moment his roommate who was in the house was asleep. I was laying on my stomach trying to calm myself down from severe ptsd. He started touching-

“My back and rubbing my body using my body until he climaxed and then went to sleep. Before I realized what happened to me I looked over and his clothes were completely off. Once I saw he was asleep I escaped from the house and started walking from Richview Road to anywhere else.”

“All of my belongings my phone my clothes shoes are all assumably at the church where I’ve been trying to track since I sought spiritual guidance/ refuge. I will not be silent.”

“Literally wearing this man’s clothes right now DNA all over me because I couldn’t locate his house the moment I called the police because I couldn’t see.”

I’ll close with this, 19 year old Toyin Salau meant something to the world. She was important to a lot of people. Toyin was a bright light in a cold world. Let’s pay attention to other Toyin’s reaching out for help.

Say her name: “Toyin Salau.”

Being the Three Musketeer’s Human Father was the most important job that I ever had. Taking care of them was one thing. But, making them is happy what my life was about. I had that down to a science.

Patrick was violently killed on August 19th, 2018 right before his 6th birthday, I died with him that day. I’ve never been the same.

When Sammy died out of the blue on the morning of January 30th, 2020, I died again.

I’ll Never forgive this life for terminating Patrick and Sammy’s lives like that. They both deserved better. Grateful is not a word in my vocabulary any longer.

My other 6 pups (including Henry on the right in picture) are doing great. I am crazy about them just like with Sammy and Patrick. But, to act like we’ll ever be restored, would be disingenuous. And I’m not go to that.

Thank you Yvonne for your Father’s Day message today. I really appreciate that.

To all the Father’s out there, Happy Father’s day.

Sincerely, Scott Sammy Patrick Smith.

It was the murder that shocked the world. It was these worlds that shocked the world: “I can’t breath. Please. I can’t breath. Mama! Mama, I’m through.”

Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin tortured and suffocated African American George Floyd to death for 9 straight minutes. It was arguably the longest 9 minutes in history. The world died with Floyd that day.

Floyd’s death was the straw the broke the camel’s back (pun intended). This is the beginning of the end of Police Brutality. No more. In some cities, police officers are marching with protestors, taking a knee in the Kaepernick position and holding up signs against police brutality. That’s some positive change right there.

Murals of George Floyd going up in countries around the world. Even Iran put up a George Floyd mural. The world is tired of America’s police brutality towards black people. Americans are also tired of police brutality towards African Americans.

We all need the police. Nobody’s disputing that. But, we also know that the only thing worse than a thug, is a thug with a badge. We the people, are policing the police with our smartphones.

The US has an opportunity here to make it right. George Floyd did not die in vain. Black Lives DO Matter.

No lives will go in vain. No pain will go unnoticed. Amen.

Sincerely, Scott Smith