With Love, From All My Animal Friends!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                              Girls, it was a spiritual experience!  But here is what you need to know.

                              My father, aged 102, and in a facility in Downingtown, PA, was fully functional, till just before Thanksgiving, last year.  Something happened--a stroke, a TIA--and he was rendered
dependent, confined to a wheelchair, unable to do anything for himself.  I was surprised how he seemed to accept the situation so readily, because, in his normal capacity, he would not.

                               Christmas was ruined by the stomach virus.  David got it first, and then I got it, and, of course, was not well enough to travel by the weekend before Christmas.  It almost did not matter, because the virus hit my father's residence, and the place was in lock down.  We would never have seen him.

                                So, the first weekend in January, there we were.  He knew us, was awake the whole time--very unusual-- and was conversant.  I think he was trying his best to be as much of himself as he could.  I had a foreboding this could be my last visit.

                                 This week, my sister called, and said he has taken a turn for the worst.  The current flu hit the place, and he got it, but he also got pneumonia.  At 102.  Now, for a time, he was strongly responding to treatment.  We thought he might bounce back and actually make it to 103, which is at the end of April.

                                    Now, I am not so sure.  His blood pressure is low, he is on IV's to make him "comfortable," and he shows signs of going into congestive heart failure.

                                      It will be just a matter of time.  My sister feels by the end of the month.

                                      So, here I am, faced with the loss of a parent whom I have had for 63 years. How many offspring can say that?  I cannot complain, because he lived a long and interesting life,
outliving all his siblings and contemporaries.

                                        Still, there is a sadness in me.  But, I am telling you, God stepped in to show me love and comfort.

                                          On my usual route to the subway, I passed the house of Chloe, a beautiful golden retriever.  I called out her name, as I always do when passing by, and she appeared in the window, tail wagging, greeting me.  I felt so good.

                                           Next, I stopped at Paws Truly to try and get a hug from Seamus, which is the best comfort there is.  Seamus was out--must have been on a photo shoot!--but Sparky, the parrot was there, in the cage.  I went up to Sparky, cooed to her, and she seemed to listen with a keen ear, as if sensing something.  Then the store owner gave me a piece of saltine cracker to feed to Sparky.  I had never been this close to her, so I was a little nervous.  But, having seen me in the store almost every day, and with a tenderness that indicated to me she sensed the situation, Sparky gently and
tenderly, took the cracker from me.  I felt even better.
as I always do, but the house was quiet.

                                                              But there was more.  Around the corner, on 77th street, lives Bacci, a beautiful white cockatoo.  I have not seen her in months, because of the intense cold, and
and miss her dearly.  I called out to her, and her canine companions, Roxy and Nyla.  But the house was quiet.

                                             I walked further up 77th, and heard a dog barking.  There, on his terrace, was Cujo!!!!!!!!!!!  The lovable boxer who won my heart, and I had not seen him since Fall.  He barked at me, offering me words of comfort, perked up his ears, and listened to me, both happy to see me, and knowing I needed comfort.  It was something I did not expect.

                                               While Cujo and I were engaged, who should come along, walking them, but the owner of Roxy and Nyla.  The two dogs were all over me, as I hugged them and they licked my face, while Cujo barked, partly out of jealousy, but partly to make me happy.

                                                 I never would have expected this.  At this time, when it was most needed.

                                                  So, thank you, animal friends for all your love.

                                                  And thank you to their owners, for allowing them to share that love
with me.

                                                   It was truly a blessed experience!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!