Let it be known that the first desk in the third row of room two is a great desk. “The fake woodwork on the table part of the desk is so well done,” said Millie Jones, homeroom occupant of this desk, with a slight laugh. This reporter, who happens to reside in the same temporary quarters during grammar class, concurs completely.

A desk is not the only thing Millie Jones and this reporter have in common. We are both thirteen years old and in the eighth grade at St. Francis Borgia Grade School.

Miss Jones hopes to, one day, open “some sort of bakery or cake decorating place” with her 16-year-old sister, Hannah. She also adds that opening a boarding kennel, restricted to dogs only, might be fun. “No cats allowed!” she remarked lightly about her future kennel. “I once read this article,” Millie explained, after being asked why she was not feline friendly, “about how cats have some of the same characteristics as snakes- such as slit-shaped pupils and a similarly shaped head as snakes. I found that kind of creepy.”

Though she already has many options to choose from, she said she has some other ideas for her career and that she’s “open to everything”. Millie went on to mention a possible profession in zoology or other sciences. “Astronomy is really cool and oceanography looks really fun,” Jones told excitedly. She is even considering following in the footsteps of her father, who is a teacher of environmental health at Saint Louis University.

Millie has a natural flair for writing, a skill that will be beneficial to her in the future, no matter what occupation she chooses. Her love of writing emanates directly from her love of reading. The Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis, The Sight, by David Clemente Davids, and “anything by Sharon Creech” are some of her favorite titles.

While other children play soccer and volleyball, Millie Jones participates in Canine Freestyle Frisbee competitions with her two-year-old Border collie named Finn. She and Finn became interested in this sport during the summer of 2005, after realizing that Finn had an incredible talent for catching Frisbees in his mouth. Millie and her dog have since joined the Missouri Disc Dog Club and partaken in many competitions. In Canine Frisbee competitions, a human/dog duo performs a two-minute routine, set to music, with their dog, using as many as twenty Frisbees, performing as many as two hundred throws. “Frisbees used in competitions are very different from the hard, plastic Frisbees that kids play with. These Frisbees are much softer and more flexible than a regular Frisbee,” she told. Finn and Millie regularly practice such throws as ‘around the back’ and a ‘hammer’. Beside plain throws, one can perform many different ‘moves’. “A vault,” Millie clarified, “is when your dog runs up your back, jumps over your head, and catches a Frisbee.” She really enjoys working with Finn and plans to continue participating in Canine Freestyle Frisbee competitions.

When asked which celebrity she would most like to meet, Millie thought, and answered with an unusual question. “Can he be dead? I don’t know if this guy is dead or not, but I’d choose Alex Stein. He is the guy that started the sport of Canine Frisbee with his dog, Ashley.”

Millie’s life is very much centered around Finn and her involvement in Frisbee, but there are other animals who lay claim a key to her heart. Jones also has an annoying eight-year-old Silky Terrier named Daisy, two chickens named Buffy and Jody, who lay eggs for breakfast every morning, an incredibly old rabbit Fern, and two very mean parrots, Kiwi and Martini. “Kiwi bites me,” Millie winced. “When I was younger and I cried, he would laugh at me using the laugh he learned mimicking my brother, Rory’s laugh and adding in his own clucks and chirps. Now, it all sounds pretty funny.”

Jones’s love of animals and the outdoors has driven her to make it a lifetime goal to take an around-the-world excursion. “If I had a chance, I would definitely take a trip around the world and stop at any place that looks interesting from the sky. I’d especially want to spend a lot of time at the rainforest. I would take a lot of pictures, too!”

When asked what color in a coloring box she would be, she immediately asked, “First, it depends, am I a crayon or a colored pencil?” With an art-teacher-mom, the distinction between colored pencil and crayon makes a big difference. With clear instruction that she was a crayon, Millie immediately exclaimed she would be electric blue. Why electric blue? She responded that there was not much of a ‘why’ behind her answer; electric blue just seemed the color that most suited her… and just so happened to resemble the color of the sky on a perfect day for practicing Frisbee with Finn.

Who’s been sitting in my chair? An animal-loving, book-reading, electric blue eighth-grader, by the name of Millie Elise Jones- that’s who!