A Dog's Purpose (from a 6-year-old)

I continue to be amazed at how much I enjoy having a dog in my life. Here's a story that's been making the email rounds about what we can learn from dogs:

Being a veterinarian, I had been called to examine a ten-year-old Irish Wolfhound named Belker. The dog's owners, Ron, his wife Lisa, and their little boy Shane, were all very attached to Belker, and they were hoping for a miracle.

I examined Belker and found he was dying of cancer. I told the family we couldn't do anything for Belker, and offered to perform the euthanasia procedure for the old dog in their home.

As we made arrangements, Ron and Lisa told me they thought it would be good for six-year-old Shane to observe the procedure. They felt as though Shane might learn something from the experience.

The next day, I felt the familiar catch in my throat as Belker 's family surrounded him. Shane seemed so calm, petting the old dog for the last time, that I wondered if he understood what was going on. Within a few minutes, Belker slipped peacefully away.

The little boy seemed to accept Belker's transition without any difficulty or confusion. We sat together for a while after Belker's Death, wondering aloud about the sad fact that animal lives are shorter than human lives. Shane, who had been listening quietly, piped up, ''I know why.''

Startled, we all turned to him. What came out of his mouth next stunned me. I'd never heard a more comforting explanation. It has changed the way I try and live.

He said,''People are born so that they can learn how to live a good life -- like loving everybody all the time and being nice, right?'' The Six-year-old continued, ''Well, dogs already know how to do that, so they don't have to stay as long.''

Remember, if a dog was the teacher you would learn things like:

When loved ones come home, always run to greet them.

Never pass up the opportunity to go for a joyride.

Allow the experience of fresh air and the wind in your face to be pure Ecstasy.

Take naps.

Stretch before rising.

Run, romp, and play daily.

Thrive on attention and let people touch you.

Avoid biting when a simple growl will do.

On warm days, stop to lie on your back on the grass.

On hot days, drink lots of water and lie under a shady tree.

When you're happy, dance around and wag your entire body.

Delight in the simple joy of a long walk.

Be loyal.

Never pretend to be something you're not.

If what you want lies buried, dig until you find it.

When someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by, and nuzzle them gently.

ENJOY EVERY MOMENT OF EVERY DAY!

On hold

I am in on-hold-hell.

Yesterday it was with Amazon.com, trying to track down a book that I ordered that never arrived.

Today I’m listening to really annoying elevator music, waiting to order a part for my vacuum.

I think when the “service” rep (I use the term loosely) comes back on the line, I’ll put him on hold and go to the bathroom. I'm sure I'll need to go by then.

More on positive thinking

"Some days are lousy, and I can't imagine having to spend those days trying to psych myself out with positive psychobabble. That would take far too much energy, and I can't imagine the pressure if I believed a negative thought could cause my cancer to come back."
-R.K., leukemia survivor

This seems to be a topic that pops up again and again. Here are a few online articles by Lori Hope (interesting last name for a cancer thriver who wrote a book called "Help me live").

When you can't think positively - celebrate!
When positive thinking isn't working, get real


What I'm grateful for today: Yoga class, because I really need to stretch.

Guest blogger: Katey

A few people have commented that I haven't been updating my dog-blog lately. I've been dictating but my mom hasn't been posting for me. What's a dog to do?

I think I'll have to bite her ankle every once in awhile to remind her...

signed Katey the Wonder Dog
Visit my blog at http://kateythewonderdog.blogspot.com/

What I'm most grateful for today: kibble, chicken livers, treats, my bed, my favorite pillow and my Pawz booties that protect my tender tooties from the salt.

What my mom is most grateful for today: me!

A real hero

In case you haven't seen it, this has been circulating by email:

John Gebhardt's wife, Mindy, said that this little girl's entire family was executed. The insurgents intended to execute the little girl also, and shot her in the head...but they failed to kill her. She was cared for in John 's hospital and is healing up, but continues to cry and moan. The nurses said John is the only one who seems to calm her down, so John has spent the last four nights holding her while they both slept in that chair.
The girl is coming along with her healing. John is a real Star of the war, and the hero of peace. You'll never see things like this in the news. Every person can make a difference in the life of someone even if it is one little girl.

Busting Out

This picture was in the Ottawa Citizen a few weeks ago; I think it was part of an advertisement for a recent cancer telethon. They must have really had to dig in the archives for this one because that's me in the front, wearing the headband and I haven't been dragon boating in several years.
Seeing the picture made me think back to what a great experience it was to paddle with the Busting Out breast cancer survivor/thriver team. During the 7 years that I was on the team, I had the opportunity to participate in many festivals including Halifax, Vancouver and even China.

But the best part of being on the team were the people I met. Even today most of my closest friends are people I met on the Busting Out team. What a great group of active, supportive, and optimistic women.

Busting Out Dragon Boat team

The Not-So-Secret

Back when it was all the buzz I bought the book “The Secret”, more out of curiosity than anything. “The Secret” turned out not to be much of a secret, but rather the law of attraction, a concept that has probably been around forever. The premise is that thoughts are very powerful and everything that happens to you, you attract to yourself through your thoughts.

The three steps in The Secret are to Ask, Believe, & Receive and our desires will be manifested. On the flip side, so-called negative thinking can attract negative things, including poverty, disaster and disease.

I have a hard time accepting that I “attracted” cancer to me. That implies blame and I don’t believe my thoughts were to blame for getting cancer any more than I believe that the people of Haiti attracted the recent earthquake. I’m much more comfortable believing that, for the most part, random bad things happen to random people, both good and bad.

However, I do think that negative people attract other negative people and positive people attract other positive people. And the more positive people you have in your life, the better your life will be and the better equipped you will be to cope when random bad things happen.

The only cancer-related thing that I think we have responsibility for is how we deal with it. Finding the positive in a negative situation just makes sense, if for no other reason than it improves our quality of life.

I personally found “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Vicktor Frankl more powerful than The Secret. It illustrates how the strength of the human spirit can triumph over even the unspeakable horror of the Nazi death camps.

(And it doesn’t have pictures of angels or kittens, or Chicken Soup for the Soul stories, which for me is a bonus).