Today, we took Cassidy and Moxie to our vet's for a visit to the massage therapist. On our way out the door this morning, Ms. Marion Louise did her best to sneak out to join us for the trip. Realizing that she really wanted an adventure, we conjured one up for her.

Today was the 19th birthday of our surrogate granddaughter Melanie. Mel has helped whelp most of our litters; has shown Rowdy and Annie when they were younger and has been as close as any person to being our "grandchild". We had planned to visit her bearing gifts and so this afternoon, I called and asked for a big favor: I asked if she would mind sharing her birthday with Marion Louise. Marion is a Rescue and we've never known her birthday but I asked if we could celebrate Marion's 13th birthday with Melanie. Mel said that she would be "proud" to share her birthday with Marion Louise. And so, we packed up our gifts -- and Marion -- and went across town to celebrate the two birthdays.

Mel and her parents own Jasper, Sundance's big brother (at 150 lbs. he is indeed a BIG brother) and Jasper was very excited to see Marion. He whined, cried and generally was as annoying as possible to her but she was given a rawhide bone and just growled at him if he got too close . Marion chased one of the cats that wandered through the living room. She ate birthday cake off of a fork with the rest of the celebrants. She chased Jasper around the yard despite our trying to keep her from exerting herself too much. And she eventually fell asleep in the back of the van on the way home.

Our view of how we're going to deal with Marion's cancer is very different than Marion's. She intends to live every single day to the hilt. She intends to eat her own meals and then try to steal Moxie's. She intends to run until she can't run any more. She intends to live her life fully until she can't live it any more. What a wonderful canine companion God has given us to share LIFE! There are some lessons here for all of us. I'm paying very close attention.

Jim