Molly, Bless her pea-picken heart, will not leave me alone. She will follow me from room-to-room. When I do manage to sit down, she jumps up on my chest and climbs right up and keeps licking the tip of my nose. This morning, I was in the shower and she climbed right in while the water was running! LOL I don’t think she will do that again! She is on my lap in this moment chasing my fingers across the keyboard.

Pigeon, since his introduction into our home has always laid on my chest at night and wrapped his paws around my neck purring me to sleep. He is still doing this with a bit of a remarkable change. Generally, his paws are loosely wrapped about my neck and he is settled on my chest. But recently, his paws are clinging to my neck and his head is right by my chin. I’m breathing in cat fur and I feel like I am the one choking and I have to move him back off a bit. A cat sitting or laying on your throat does not feel very comforting. LOL

Kota has been remarkable. I don’t think I have uttered one command to him about what he should do: sit, wait, back, down. He’s just doing it. The other night at the Hospice House, Kota encountered Bear. Bear is this little tiny fuzzy mix of if I would guess, I would say Silkie, miniature poodle, chihuahua, and Scottish terrier in minature. He was decked out in the loudly colored Christmas sweater. What a doll-baby he is. Kota saw him coming down the hall and I thought “Uh oh, here we go.” Normally, Kota would be all over him, but instead, he whined, his tail was flying, but he laid down right next to my legs. I was looking at him thinking “Who are you and what did you do to my dog?”  Bear was on a flex leash and he came up to me, stopped and sat up begging. Brian (his owner an elderly man) stepped into view and said “You must have dog biscuits?”

I did, I had a pocket full of Kota’s favorites. I asked if I could give him one, but Brian said, “Let’s let the two meet first, shall we?” I looked down at Kota, who was still on the down. Tail just whirling, heavy excited panting, body quivering. I knew he wanted to play so badly. But he stayed right where he was at as Bear sniffed him head to toe.Kota was trying to keep track of where Bear was at all time, and his head was twisting and turning and he was looking at me like, MOM! Please?” At one point, Bear put his paw on Kota’s massive shoulder and leaped over him to the other side. LOL  Finally, I told Kota he could get up and they sniffed noses and were fast friends.

He lays in Mike’s room when we get there and if a nurse or aide comes in, he slides under the bed to get out of the way- Mike’s bed is cranked way off the ground. Or, he will go into the bathroom and block the door. Driving, I will start to talk to God and before I know it, I have a very large black german shepherd in my face licking away my tears. He could have been way in the back of the truck looking out the window or sleeping- but the minute I give in to the emotions of the moment, there he is. I have to tell him to get back- he ain’t a lap dog! He currently weighs 95 pounds!

Speaking of weight, thanks in large part to that mass. Mike is now not eligible for any Body Donor Program in Oregon. The students need to be able to work with the body, moving it about and that isn’t going to be possible anymore.

So I had to find a Plan B and Friday next week, I am going to Salem to sign papers and fill out forms to have him cremated. I will request his ashes be shipped to Dave (Mike’s oldest) Dave lives in Anchorage. Doug, Mo, and LaVern are also there. Mike has a spot next to his dad in Newport, Oregon, but he is agreeable with my thinking that it makes no sense (in my mind at least) to bury him up there, when the family when it does get together, generally they are all in Alaska. I don’t need a urn of ashes or a gravestone to remember Mike. I will never forget him.

I don’t want, in the future, the family to get together in Alaska and then have to plan on another expense of going to Oregon to visit their father. That’s just not how I think. They are going to spread his ashes on Hidden Lake, which is the site of our first date. I believe he even gave Doug (the skipper of the family) close coordinates to the spot where I caught the first fish of the day a 24″ rainbow trout! 🙂