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Tuesday, June 11, 2019

A New Best Buddy

June 2014
My beloved Perro died. He had cancer. I held his furry chin in my hands, resting his head on my lap as I sat on the floor at the vets. He licked my hand. We sat there for the longest time. I couldn't hold onto him any longer ... his pain was intense. The vet gave him the shot ... loving words spoken by her.. softly and comforting for both of us. And she again left us alone. If tears could revive him he'd have bound out of the office and ran  all the way home. But that can't happen.
I put this T shirt on him the week before he died..... not knowing it would be tragically prophetic for him. The shirt was in honor of a young boy named Clay who lived cancer free for 5 years... enduring the horrendous chemotherapy that saved his life. Perro looked adorable in the orange "Clay" cure cancer tshirt. Perro was 9 years old.
My neighbors helped me carry the cardboard box containing Perro and his raggedy torn basketball down to the Pine Tree... Eldon's Pine Tree. And we placed Perro near the stump. The trek back up the hill was painful. I left my two best friends behind ... the pain returned.
My (silly) prayer for the past five years since losing Eldon has been, "If there's to be a new man in my life Lord .... please hurry... because this (waving my hand toward my face and 74 year old body) is going fast!"
But my prayer for a new 4 legged companion was immediate .... I will very shortly find the perfect dog to be my new best friend.
Meet Jack.
90 pounds of pure JOY!
Labrador Retriever and Border Collie.
Funny
loving
gentle
protective
well trained
obedient
and he loves me!

Snickers, my 12 year old kitty,
didn't think too kindly of the black hairy chubby intruder!
Hiding from Jack in the tallest kitchen shelves he could find.


Truce!  Canned cat food ... Snickers addiction of choice!
He didn't take his eyeballs off of Jack .. but he licked the can clean.

I dribbled a bit of Snicker's canned food onto the side of the chest freezer ..... What a brave kitty .... what a brave dog! Snickers could rip any dog from ear to ear
if he chose to do so!
"Let us break bread together on our knees ...... " an old song from my Catholic upbringing.
In this case.... Let us lick canned cat food together without war!!!
And so begins a new chapter in my life.
A new best friend,
Snickers my old dear friend,
and You Lord .......
and my not-so-frequent prayer, spoken softly and without much conviction any more
".... and if there's to be a new man...... "
Not the end
but a new beginning every day as I get out of bed and pray,
"Thanks Lord .... I'm upright and breathing!"




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