Pet's Prayer

Here's to my Mom:
My people are so precious Lord
I know you think so too.
And I believe you put me here
To love them just for you!

They face a lot of battles
As they live and work each day
They need me, Lord,
To make them smile
And show them how to play!

They take such gentle care of me
And have such tender hearts
Please use me Lord to comfort them
Whenever teardrops start.

The world is full of people
But sometimes real friends are few
Please let my love and loyalty
Remind them Lord of You.

And when my final moment comes,
Lord tell them as we part
I was a made-to-order gift
From your great loving heart.

By Hope Herrington Kolb

from your loving Gus.

Gus 7-16-2002 to 3-31-2010

I lost my Gussie 8 months after the lymphoma diagnosis. We were so blessed that he was with us this long with a good quality of life. The vets told me he would only survive 1 or 2 months after diagnosis with no treatment. I elected not to do chemo and torture him further. He had a few days on occasion when he didn't feel up to par but for the majority he was his normal, impish self. Max and I are missing him terribly. But he is out of pain and playing ball with my Jim so I know they are in a much better place. It just hurts to lose him so soon after I lost my Jim.
Anna

Lymphoma

My mom just found out that I have lymphoma and she has been crying a lot. The lymph nodes in my neck swelled and I had a cough and we went to see Dr. Downey and they stuck needles into my neck for a biopsy. They thought at first it was just an infection, but after 7 days of antibiotics, I had more nodes swell on my chest and back legs so more needles--yuck! The lab at CSU said it is lymphoma. Mom has been crying and brother Max keeps licking my neck. I feel GOOD right now and am having a great time with Mom and Max. Mom got me a special food that is really yummy and I like it a lot. Mom says she thinks my Daddy, who went to heaven 2 years ago is missing me so much that he wants me to come to him. I know I'll miss Mom and Max when I have to go--but I am so looking forward to seeing my Daddy again!

New Brother

UGH! The weekend before Christmas my mom, dad and I went for a 2 hour drive to a farm and picked up the dirtiest, stinkiets, skinniest baby schnauzer I ever saw! AND, we brought him home with us! Boy was I ever disgusted! He was a poor little thing, he had been living in a barn with his furry parents and 2 big dogs and was having to fend for himself for food and mom found out they were feeding the dogs cat food. YIKES! I was not too impressed with our new addition at all. We got him home and mom promptly gave him a bath and cleaned out his butt and eyes and he looked and smelled lots better anyway. I decided to ignore him but he kept trying to snuggle up to me and I sure didn't want any part of that. But, mom and dad were playing with him and telling me how nice he was. Then the intruder had the audacity to bounce up to me with a tug toy so I decided I'd better play with him to get him away from mom. Boy, it is fun having someone to play with even if he is a baby. Now he's 7 months old and not so whiny like he was. It's fun to cuddle up together on mom's lap or in front of the heat vent. Having a brother is not such a bad thing after all. Oops, gotta go, Max is up from his nap and ready to play! Later

Gus OverBoard

On Memorial weekend 2005, we went fishing on our pontoon boat as we do quite often. I was pretty excited that day for some reason, it was cool and cloudy and overcast and I really was excited about Mom and Dad catching a fish. I was patrolling the deck as usual and all of a sudden a fish rolled right by the boat--boy was that cool! THEN Mom got a fish on and she was reeling it in and I decided to help her and what better way to do that than leap over the side of the boat and GET that fish! Was my Mom ever surprised when she saw me launch myself off the boat. I wasn't prepared for water, I thought I could walk on the water. Imagine my surprise when I went under. I guess I know how to swim now--Mom says not very pretty but at least I kept myself up until Dad backed the boat up and Mom got out the fish net. I was sure flailing my feet as hard as they could go to keep myself up. Mom finally got me with the fish net--that was scary. She got me back on board and she and Dad were both about to cry--it was scary! Now I have a new life vest--I don't like it much, but Mom and Dad are much happier. We are learning to swim with the vest and wade in the water on the beach, so we don't have another scare!