Like A Rock

Written By: David Stroud - Cashiers-Highlands Humane Society | Issue: March 2025

I have a gym in my humble little basement. It’s not much, really, just a couple of inexpensive machines and some weights. One thing that gets me motivated to exercise is music. Music is my second-most favorite love, and I sure hope you can guess the first. So when I do dust off the cobwebs of my basement gym equipment, one of the first things I do is crank up my favorite workout songs.

I have a lot of rescued shelter pets at home. Of all the rescued animals at my house, from blind dogs to three-legged dogs to one-eyed cats, seniors, and the list is much longer… there is a bird. I am not a bird expert, but he is very pretty and he is very mean.

Mr. Bird has a quite large and comfy cage in the basement next to my workout equipment. So whenever I do get around to hopping on the treadmill or lifting some weights, I turn on the music, get settled next to Mr. Bird, and get my pulse moving. The last song of my workout playlist is always the same. It’s Bob Seger’s “Like a Rock”. What happens next is something that Pulitzer Prize-winning author Dave Barry was famous for saying: “I promise I am not making this up.”

When “Like a Rock” starts playing, Mr. Bird starts bobbing his head and swaying his colorful feathered body from side to side, especially when the crescendo with these lyrics play:

“I stood arrow straight, unencumbered by the weight of all these hustlers and their schemes. I stood proud, I stood tall. High above it all. I still believed in my dreams.”

Louise is one of our longest-term residents. I don’t know if hustlers and schemes were in her past life, but she gets along great with people. Louise is strong and loyal, like a rock. She stands proud, and she stands tall, high above it all. Louise still believes in her dreams. We believe in her dreams, too, and we’re not going to give up until we can make them come true. Come meet this sweet girl and give her the forever home she has been patiently waiting for.

Established in 1987, Cashiers-Highlands Humane Society is a 501(c)(3) non-profit animal welfare organization located at 200 Gable Drive in Sapphire, one-and-a-half miles east of the Cashiers Ingles in between Cedar Creek Club and Lonesome Valley on Highway 64. Our no-kill shelter is open Tuesday-Saturday 10:00 A.M. – 4:00 P.M. For more information, visit us online at chhumanesociety.org or call (828) 743-5752. Tax-deductible donations to support our lifesaving work can be mailed to: CHHS, P.O. Box 638, Cashiers, NC 28717.