January 8th, 2009

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Dogs of Seattle

Thursday, January 8th, 2009

Hellllloooooo there!

As part of my parting blogs, I wanted to showcase all the dogs of Seattle in one post. These guys all helped my mom and me smile during our time here. This is a city of dogs (and cats), specialty pet stores and happy owners. No wonder I like it here so much!! The pics are in no particular order–I just wanted to flood you with photos. :) You’ve seen them all before, but I think seeing them all together will truly make you realize what a dog friendly city this is.

All of you pet lovers out there know how important these guys are in our lives. I’ve had several in my life, and I thought I’d just dedicate this post to them. :) This is for Thunder (our Newfoundland whom we had until I was 9); Sherlock and Agatha (Border Collie littermates who brought us a lot of joy throughout my elementary school, high school, college AND post-college years); Bella (our kitty who came as a stray about 7 years ago exactly and slowly evolved from a feral cat to a loving and very spoiled one); and of course, Jameson and Guinness (our Border Collie and Australian Shepherd mix), who are wonderful company, and with whom I have a very strong bond, I think especially because they were home with me both times I had leukemia (note the word “had!). Well, and also just because they are special pups.

Thank you to all the dogs and owners who helped make our stay out here feel more normal, especially Carlo. I’ll miss my walks to the Irish pub to see him, but maybe I’ll come back and visit him in October when I’m here for my check-up. OK, I’m almost done talking about dogs…I just wanted to include a quote because you know how much I love quoting others!

“Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole”. - Roger Caras

I’m definitely a believer in that! I know some of you may think I’m a crazy dog lady, but really I’m not!! I just know I’m happier when they are around.

I’ll stop with the dog talk now. :) So we went to a Long-Term Follow-up class today, in order to have all the information we need once we leave SCCA. It’s kind of weird. I was talking with my nurse, Jackie, the other day, and she said that I’ve been able to see so much, it’s kind of like I just had a transplant on the side! My mom and I keep busy and so many wonderful visitors came out here over the past few months that it was easy (for the most part) for me to take my focus off the leukemia and the treatment. Talking at the long-term follow-up course brought up lots of different issues and possible problems I could have in the future, either related to GVHD, some sort of medicine or a long-term effect of the treatment itself. It’s scary to wonder what the future holds, and I will have lots more time to ponder this once I’m home. Talking about the details sometimes makes me worry more, but I know there’s nothing more I can do to be a better patient. When I get like this (I can’t remember if I told you this before, but I’m sure I probably did…I’ve said almost everything on here!!), I make myself think of the worst-case scenario, which would be death. Well, I have no say as to when I die, and there’s nothing I can do to change what the future holds, so I force myself to think about it, and then I tell myself that it is what it is. Day to day is the only way to do it, so with my health in mind, I will be vigilant of any changes in my body and I will keep walking my path. I’m excited to see where it leads!

Tomorrow I have my doctor’s appointment, so I will probably have more to share with you then. I have quite the list of questions to ask!! Hope everyone is doing well. And when I wrote “parting blog” at the top of this post, I mean “parting from Seattle”. I will probably keep writing once I’m home because I like doing it, but it won’t be as exciting!! I think I need to tour DC, my own city, that I know very little about!

Good night from a very rainy Seattle!

Love,

Julie