Editor’s Note: We are on our way to Orlando to attend one of three huge and important dog shows happening in as many months, but before we left, we were asked by someone who remembered the post from a blog to reprise it. She thought it might be a good message to share right about now. This one is for Betsy: 

The other day as I was filling my car with gas, I noticed a note under one of the windshield wipers. I had just left a parking lot and my immediate thought was that someone had backed into my car and damaged it, or worse, I’d done something bad and hadn’t even realized it.

The note read, “We’re out doing 26 random acts of kindness today and I am leaving this note to say, ‘have a fabulous day!’ Make the most of every second!!”

I’d already been having a pretty good morning when I found the note, but if I’d been having a lousy day – the kind of day in which people were mean to me, nothing was going right, and a black cloud was following me around, this nice gesture would have been just what I needed to salvage my opinion of the human race.

I thought back to a small group of giggling teenagers I’d passed on my way from the car to the store and was all but certain that they were behind the note. Good for them, I thought.

This wasn’t the first time I was the recipient of a random act of kindness. “Back in the day,” long before shopping malls and years before parents thought nothing of depositing their twelve year olds at a mall to shop within the safety of a pack of prepubescent girls, my parents allowed me to go “downtown” to shop by myself for the first time. I was thirteen years old, and back then, thirteen was a lot younger than it is now. I went to stores that interested me (and not my mother), and the independence left me feeling empowered. Self importantly, I decided to treat myself to lunch at a department store restaurant, and after I finished my sandwich and asked for the bill, my waitress (that’s what we called them back then) told me that it had been paid by another customer who said I reminded her of her granddaughter.

I was stunned.

I no longer remember what I bought with the money I didn’t spend on lunch, but these were the days of the British Invasion, Mary Quant, Twiggy and the Carnaby Look, so I probably bought burgundy-colored fish net stockings or white hoop earrings the size of hub caps that my mother would never let me wear. Still, I never forgot the gesture.

The gesture was repeated this past summer in a Starbucks drive-through when the person driving the car in front of me paid for my drink. Who was this angel, I wondered. Had he been a good looking dude who’d admired the babelicious chick in his rear view mirror? Had I reminded someone of their grandmother? Or had someone seen my face and decided that I looked like I needed all the kindness I could get in this life.  I just don’t know, but I sure enjoyed that Skinny Vanilla Decaf Latte Venti as I envisioned Clive Owen paying for it.

The notion of “paying it forward” or “random acts of kindness” isn’t anything new – folks have been committing benevolent acts for a long time under different names: The Good Samaritan, the anonymous donor, the charitable benefactor…..but what if we applied the same concept to a narrower field, say, our sport? What could any of us, average people with jobs, mortgages, kids, debt and maybe aches and pains, do to bring a little sunshine to the people with whom we work, play and compete at every dog show?  What would a random act of kindness look like in the dog fancy? While I couldn’t hope to match the goal of twenty-six acts my presumed “teenage angels” had in their sights, I did come up with a few ideas (and from polled acquaintances on Facebook) even if some of the deeds aren’t entirely anonymous:

• 
Pre-write a note addressed to “Ring Steward” explaining that you appreciate them for volunteering to conduct ring business, and then leave the note on a steward’s table for them to discover;
• Leave a “goodie” adorned with a bow on a random grooming table in the grooming area, something any dog owner could use: A new box of wet wipes, a package of poop scoop bags, a box of dog treats, etc., and include a note explaining that the gift is a random act of kindness;
• Buy a drink or lunch for the fourth or fifth person behind you at the concession stand;
• While at a vendor selling dog books, insert a note between the pages of a book you’ve read wishing the eventual buyer of the book success in the show ring, healthy puppies if it’s a book on breeding, or detailing the part of the book you found most helpful;
• Watch a breed different from your own being judged and tell someone whose dog didn’t place something positive about  their dog or how they handled it;  As Caroline from Facebook said, “How many times do we walk out of the ring feeling invisible, yet have our spirits lifted because somebody ringside said a kind word. I still remember the first person who ever told me my dog was nice….she didn’t have to go out of her way to tell a novice she liked a dog, and we didn’t win that day, but I felt like I was flying all the way home!”
• Offer to pull, or help pull someone’s wheels bearing crates of dogs back to their car;
• Pay the parking fee for the car behind you;
• Help someone erect or break down their canopy;
• Bring a cup of hot coffee or iced tea to the volunteer dealing with cars in the parking lot;
• Spend a few extra minutes holding the door open for someone needing it;
• Help someone you don’t know put on their armband;
• Offer to make space for someone in need of a grooming spot by moving your own stuff!
• Tape a really excellent coupon for dog food to the inside of a rest room door;
• Stand ringside of a junior handling ring and take pictures, then offer to e-mail them to the parent(s) standing by;
• Judges are people, too. If you see one who’s particularly gentle with puppies, good with novices or comports their ring pleasantly and professionally, send them an anonymous note telling them that you noticed!

If you can think of some more, I’d like to hear them, but in the meantime, a few parting thoughts.

There are times when it’s best to explain with a note that an act of kindness is just that. I’d be more inclined to use a box of dog biscuits decorated with a bow if I knew that it was a good deed left by a fellow dog person,  and not something a creepy dog poisoner left for me.

On occasion, you might get to see the end result of your act of kindness, and if it seems to go unappreciated, I think it’s because some people aren’t accustomed to being treated well, or are so stunned that it takes time for them to process their good fortune. Don’t worry about it. You can only control what you do, not how someone reacts to it. Above all, dismiss any feeling of being taken for a sucker. This exercise isn’t to make you feel good but to toss some good karma into the world.

Sometimes, your kindness may benefit someone unpleasant, underserving, or maybe even someone you don’t like. I look at it this way: You don’t get to choose. It’s called random for a reason, and besides, you never know. Being at the receiving end of one nice deed may be all it takes for someone to become a pleasant person.