Our player in the spotlight this month is Sharacraft, known to most of us as Sharon.

Sharon was born in Rochester, NY, on August 27, 1954. She lives in Penfield, NY, a suburb of Rochester.

Sharon was been member of Mountain Euchre for about five years. She has no favourite players – she loves them all and is always glad to get one when she can.

Sharon hopes she is friends with everyone on Mountain – many have a special place in her heart. She has had the opportunity to meet some of them, like Angie, Nurse Donna, Flute, Browneyes, Donna, Gloop, Pattie, Hkvikes, Leo (use to be her brother in law - lol), and many others. She is hoping to get to meet Doris in May when she travels to Indy.

Sharon is in her 34th year at Kodak. She manages their consumer promotions and sweepstakes for consumer products. She has had several jobs at Kodak, such as chauffeuring the executives, managing files all the way back to George Eastman's time to what she currently does. Unfortunately she is not old enough to retire yet and there are many layoffs these days - she just made it through her 14th layoff. She loves what she does and wants to work for another 8 years if possible.

Sharon is the third oldest of seven. She has 2 brothers and 5 sisters. One of her sisters has passed away. She was only 32 and had an unfortunate accident skydiving. She was very special to Sharon. Her daughter is now 22 and they are very close. She is absolutely beautiful. Her dad has also passed away in the last 10 years. She has an adorable older sister that is mentally challenged and has water on the brain but she is so precious. My best friend in the world "My Mom" is 75 and cares for her sister day in and day out. Her other siblings are local, other than one brother in Indy. Unfortunately God did not bless her with children but He blessed her with several nieces and nephews. She is Godmother to a few of them and had the honor of having one niece every other weekend and another one lived with her for a few years. Sharon spent most of her childhood raising her younger siblings while her parents worked to feed all 9 of them. She was caring for babies when she was as young as 7 years old. She spent much of her life as a caregiver between siblings, her sister when she was ill, her husband who is no longer with us, and many others through her lifetime. God has blessed her with a heart of gold and has given her strength to do for others and to give hope to others.

One time Sharon had the opportunity to sing with a group with Rosemary Clooney in one of her Christmas shows. The following year she sang in three Holiday shows with Peter, Paul and Mary. What an opportunity!!! Mary even made them all Liver pate!!! She has autographs from them all.

The farthest Sharon has gone to meet anyone from Euchre is Australia. She loves to travel, and went there for a month to spend time with a very special friend, and she also went on her very first cruise this year. She loves having her hands in all kinds of things and is willing to try anything once. She spends most of her free time on line, with friends or doing crafts. She has a love for music, (spent 25 years singing in a group), crafts (currently making blankets to donate to homeless children), puzzles (she usually does about 10 a year), games and EUCHRE EUCHRE EUCHRE.

Her nickname amongst her family, friends and co-workers is "Angel". She is the one people go to with hopes - she can counsel, find the answers, etc. She is always there for you.

Sharon has a min min poo – a miniature pinscher and miniature poodle mix. She is so darn smart. She thanks God every day that she is so blessed with her. She is great company for her.

Sharon says she is very blessed to have such wonderful friends!!!!

Sharon has sent us photos of herself, she and her Mom, she and her niece and her wonderful little dog.

This months Pet Article features barracudday's horse, Suzzy

For this month’s edition of The Pet Of The Month, I am featuring our very own barracuddaboy aka Mark’s and his beloved horse “Suzzy,” aka Try N Sue.

Other than editing, I am leaving it as it is, as Mark has done a great job on his own!

Hello. My name is barracuddaboy aka Mark. I currently own 7 race horses.

I have had many horses through out the years. I started when I was about 28. It’s kind of all about making money, so I will tell you about one horse I bought when she was a yearling. In horse terms that means under 2 years of age. We purchased her at an auction. She was brown and was quite big for her age. We named her “Try N Sue”. We sent her to Ocala, Florida to be broken. This means to tame her so that she’s easy to work with. Seeing that we race them, they train everyday like a human would if preparing to run a marathon. It is a long road from the time they break the horse until the time they are able to run. It takes approximately 6 months. We got her into shape and along the way and discovered we had a very nice horse. Try N Sue went on to win many big races and making us a lot of money! Try N Sue also ran in the Kentucky Oaks, which is a day before the Kentucky Derby. She didn’t do so well, because she bled.

This is common with race horses, so we put her on medications and she went on to win a few more races. The most interesting part is that we purchased her $3,500.00, a great deal for a horse of her stature. We were offered $350,000 for her, but declined the offer, as we thought we would make more than that back on her in races. The very next race, Try N Sue got a stone in her eye and STILL finished third place!! ..6 months later, she ran again and finished third, even though she was suffering with a with a very bad breathing problem. The problem was a paralied flap, requiring surgery and was performed. A year later, Try N Sue was unable to finish a race she was running in. The open flap became infected. Try N Sue was extremely sick. The vets told us they have never seen a horse make it that was as ill a Try N Sue was. Every day, I went to feed her grass and do what I can day for her. Day after day, seeing her so sick and she was so sweet was extremely hard to bear. After some time, and to my surprise, she made it!! However, her racing days were over. We did not want her to go through anything like that again, so we decided to send her to Kentucky have her bred. She became pregnant and doing fine, .then that year in Kentucky there was something going around called bluegrass, which was killing many horses. In fact, five of the horses in her barn died. A week went by and we found out she was the only horse in the stable to live! Amazing fate, yet again! We went on to sell Suzzie (what I called her) with the foal for $75.00 plus the $5.000 for the breeding. Suzzie was amazing! She is still is talked about today. We have just broke a horse and is now in training that we bought at the same place, but for more money. We named her Play N Hooky. She is starting off with the same abilities as Try N Sue began with. We hopes for the same kind of success that we had with Try N Sue.

It’s hard to own race horses and treat them like a pet in this type of business. Horse come and they go. If u go there everyday playing with them, you grow found of them. To keep a horse cause you fall in love with them can be very, very costly I don’t like living on a farm, so, to have a horse sleep in the spare bedroom ..well, I don’t think the next door folks would like that so much!!

I will leave you with one thought, “A horse isn’t a horse of course unless it’s a talking Mr. Ed.”

Thank you, Mark for a very nice article!!!