Dear Karen and John

Dear Karen and John:

I love you; I really love you; I really really love you. I spent so many happy and healthy years with you in Calgary. I was sad and sorry when I had to come to Toronto because you were sick Karen. I miss you now that you have gone to Heaven. I hope you are happy and living in the sunshine of the Lord. I know John that you are still in Calgary because you come to visit me sometimes here in Toronto. And you still talk the same, and smell the same, and bless me the same.

I was really scared when I came to Toronto. There was so much noise here! Aunt Silvia and Aunt Mary were very kind though and I knew I wasn’t being sent to strangers. But they knew I wasn’t very restful where they were living – cause there was so much noise and confusion! So, they found Jim and Brenda for me. And I came to live with them.

Will it make you mad if I tell you that I really, really love Jim? It doesn’t take anything away from the love that I feel for you, but he is my best buddy in the whole world. You see, he is retired and I wanted to retire. We lie around most of the day and watch TV, or I listen while he plays music (I didn’t realize that I was a country and western fan!). Sometimes I watch him do laundry. I really like the summertime because I can lie out in the backyard while he lazily cleans the pool. It is amazing that the only difference between Jim and me is that he collects some things called CPP and OAP in the mail and I don’t. I keep barking at the mailman to treat me the same as Jim...but he mostly ignores me.

You probably know I was very sick. I was in the hospital and the doctors think I had a heart attack or maybe a stroke. I have fluid around my heart. They coulda operated but they said it was risky and Jim and Brenda didn’t want to take the risks. After all the tests and such, it ended up costing Jim and Brenda twenty six hundred dollars (whatever those things called dollars are, but Jim keeps mentioning that I am not to any longer consider myself a dog that came to them free – I am a hundred-dollar a day dog – I think "dollars" means I’m very special to my best friend!).

And then I had another attack. It completely exhausted me for a few days. I couldn’t eat; I couldn’t sleep; I couldn't drink water; and I just lay around. I didn’t even have the energy to follow Jim around during the day. Brenda was scared and worried, but she said that if I needed to meet Karen at the Rainbow Bridge, that was okay. She was crying when she said it (I hate it when Brenda cries; I know it comes hard to her). Jim was hugging me every five minutes, and I really liked that. But I know he was worried and scared, too.

But I’m much better today and that is why I wanted to write you. I hope you won’t be mad at me, but I think I am going to stay here a little while longer. I know my job is to meet you Karen at the Rainbow Bridge and I will do that someday. Keep watching for me; don’t forget that I am coming back to you. For now, though, I love this being-retired life!

Brenda keeps saying that I am living my freedom-fifty-five-life. I don’t really know what that means, but she laughs when she says it, so I think it might be a good thing.

I will be at the Rainbow Bridge. But Not Yet. Not Just Yet.

Suzie Q.