Cremated Pets and A Lap Dog

        

   We watched Sandy, our granddog, this weekend because Renee and Adam went to NY to see the play Hamilton!! Sandy thinks she is Adam's lap dog!! She just LOVES Adam. She was SO SO happy when they got back!! Sandy tolerates us but doesn't really like us that much!! Sandy is a smart dog.  She unlatched the dining room doors to get out to the cat fodd we had left by the front door. There was even a dining room chair against the back of the foor but she moved that back too! This morning when I came downstairs, she had opened the kitchen louver doors and ate all of the cat food during the night! So I put a stool in front of the doors. Then later, she dragged the stool away from the kitchen doors to get out to the cat food! We heard her out in the kitchen and Dan went and saw the stool moved.  The stool was all  wet from her dog saliva!! She was trying to get back out to the cat food!!     When Benson, Amy's cat died, we had him cremated and we buried his ashes with Amy in her grave. We dug a hole and buried the tiny little box casket. Olivia thought we would be arrested  for digging a hole and burying the small 3 in. by 4 in. casket.  We paid a hefty sum for a huge plot so we feel totally justified burying the tiny caskets there.  We had paid for a private cremation as opposed to a group animal cremation.  I think we paid about $300 for a private cremation.  Marvin, Dan's birthday cat, died last year and once again we paid for a private cremation.  Today when we were at the cemetery I told Dan to tell Benson and Marvin I said hello because I couldn't walk to the grave from the car.  When he came back to the car he said to me, "How do we really know if that is all or part of our animals? "How do we know they didn't just mix them in with other animals?" We don't really know!! We kept talking about it and figured out that they probably don't clean out the crematory after each cremation so there are probably residual ashes from other animals!! Who knows what animal or animals are buried with Amy?? Who knows what ashes we buried??  We could have buried ashes left from dogs, cats, birds, snakes, turtles, lizards, etc!!


 
           Today I was in a hazy,  drowsy state most of the day! My pain management doctor told me to increase my Gabapentin  from 300 mg a day to 900 mg a day.  I increased to 200 mg more this morning, I had been taking 100 mg in the morning. I don't think I will ever make it to 900 mg a day! I would be a drooling idiot in a stupor!!! I can barely function on the 100 mg increase to 500 mg a day!!! I felt like my body was dead weight! After we went to the cemetery, Dan stopped at ACME to get a few things.  I barely heard him get out of the car and I never heard him get back in.  Then he went to CVS.  I never knew he went in there.  I woke up or came out of the stupor daze when Dan was at the traffic light leaving CVS.  I can't remember a time I slept in the car, especially sitting up. I was shocked that I didn't know about the Acme shopping or the CVS shopping!! I usually get all of any medicine side effects.  This is the first time in months that my leg didn't hurt!!!!!!!!!! Maybe it is because I was drowsy and sleepy most of the day! When we got home, I laid down on the couch and was out for hours!! LOL, I slept through Olivia and Frankie making Tacos in the kitchen!  Olivia is NOT  quiet in the kitchen but I didn't hear a thing from them cooking to their eating and then cleaning up!
         Dan burned a HUGE pile of garden and tree debris out back.   Usually I am nervous about it and make him stay outside and keep checking it. I was too out of it to care about the enormous size of the fire. Today all I thought was gee, that's a really big fire and t looks pretty!!
         For the last few days I have been giving out the envelopes with the notes, five dollar bill, and Mass card to friends and strangers!  I dropped two envelopes off to my friends Jackie and Carol a few days ago, so I thought!  I was pretty sure I had Dan stop at the correct house because I thought I recognized Carol's car in the driveway.  He ran up and put the envelopes in the mailbox!! When we got home, I looked in my phone boo and thought I dropped off the envelopes to the wrong address.  I felt like such a fool!! I emailed Jackie and told her what I did!  My email to her is below.

Jackie, what an idiot I am. I dropped off two envelopes for you and for carol to do the random acts of kindness.  I wrote carol on one and jackie on the other and we put it in the mailbox out front but the WRONG mailbox. I saw a red car in the driveway and thought it was your house,  think we put it in 312 mailbox or 302.

I am an idiot!

COlleen

 Turns out I did put the envelopes in the correct mailbox!!!!!!!! I do have the best
"best friends" ever.



   Colleen, you put them in the right box!  We both received the envelopes and were touched beyond words to get them.  We are planning to include the money in a donation we are going to make to St. Jude's in Amy's name.  We'll send you a copy of the letter we write them.  
Love Jackie