Getting By With a Little Help From My Friends | Losing the Dog Daddy

Thank you.

Thank you for the cards, calls, and messages.

Thank you for your prayers, positive energy and good thoughts.

Thank you for the memorial contributions to Stray Rescue of St Louis, Dogwood Animal Shelter, Wayside Waifs, and Richmond (VA) SPCA in memory of Gary. 

Thank you for the gifts for Rudy, Rosie, Skeeter and me.

Thank you for your loving, thoughtful, fun and funny posts to my Facebook timeline.

Just some of the beautiful cards, letters and donation notifications.

Special thanks:
 
To my friend who, when I told her Gary died, her first response was "How are you doing?" After a pause while I tried to think what to say, she said "no, no. I mean are you okay financially? Be honest. I'll write you a check."

To my friend who, as soon as she found out that Gary died and I was alone, dropped everything and drove 6 hours to be with me.

To my friends who made the amazing commitment to take my dogs and cat if anything should happen to me now that Gary is not here.

To Gary's son who took care of some chores for me before returning to Colorado and has stayed in touch to offer support.

To my friend who has insisted on a daily check in from me - just to make sure I'm okay.

To my friends who invited me for Thanksgiving and Christmas so I would not be alone.

To my friends who continue to check in with me via Facebook, email and phone.

To my friends who generously and repeatedly ask me: what can I do? 

I'm very sorry it has taken me so long to express my gratitude.  Please don't take it as a sign that I don't appreciate you.   

Thank you. I am truly blessed to call you my friends.

Gratitude and other Dog Stuff! | Barks and Bytes

Barks
Rudy's birthday was a whole lot of fun and I'll be boring delighting you with more about it in the coming days.  

However, right now thanks are in order!  

A very special gift arrived for the birthday boy that added to the excitement. The mailman delivered a package addressed to Rudy with something very special inside.

Check out this gorgeous paracord dog leash handmade by JoAnn at Sandspring Chesapeakes.

JoAnn made it to perfectly match the paracord collar she sent to Rudy previously.  It's in his favorite UNC Tarheels basketball colors!

Rudy woofs "Thanks!" to the Sandspring Chesapeakes gang

 
I'm barking a whole lot of gratitude to some of my favorite pet bloggers today.  I'm also sorry I haven't been buying lottery tickets because I have been so lucky lately!

Last month I entered a giveaway at Tales from the Backroad for a Righteous Hound t-shirt giveaway.  I won!  I got to chose whatever t-shirt I wanted and couldn't resist the Peace, Love, Woof design.  Thank you so much, Mary, Roxy and Torrey!

Jeffie loves my new Peace, Love, Woof t-shirt from Righteous Hounds.

A couple of weeks ago SlimDoggy had a photo caption contest on Facebook.  I'm usually no good at these, but Rudy took one look at this photo of Maggie and he knew exactly what she was thinking!  (Great Lab minds think alike.)  

I won the cutest SlimDoggy vinyl decal of their logo!  Thanks Kate, Steve, Jack and Maggie!  Couldn't help but notice the decal was created by our pals at Stylish Canine.

Bytes
Gotta love our virtual / internet  friends and all the wonderfully thoughtful happy birthday wishes Rudy received, including these picture greetings from Sandspring Chesapeakes and Dakota's Den.  Thanks so much!

Nellie, Glory and Gambler of Sandsrping Chesapeakes

Dakota at Dakota's Den

Be sure to come back for Dog Song Saturday! This week's feature is a music video tribute to Pit Bull dogs and Pit Bull Awareness Month.

I feel compelled to do a little shameless self promotion and remind you:
For Love of a Dog has a huge sale going on right now:  Labrador Retriever dog breed jewelry (in honor of Rudy's birthday, so sale will be over soon),  dog breed Christmas ornaments (hurry, most breeds are already sold out), dog leash holders, and Rainbow Bridge jewelry for dog and cat lovers.

If you hurry, you may still have time to enter Rudy's birthday giveaway!  The lucky winner of the Dog Mom Gift Pack from Dog is Good will be chosen at midnight tonight!

We're participating in the Thursday’s Barks and Bytes Blog hop hosted by 2 Brown Dogs and Heart Like a Dog.  The Barks and Bytes hop is for anything at all and all bloggers are welcome. You don’t have to be a dog blog to join.