By Anna Von Reitz
Today, I finally had a few minutes to sit down and write a few thank you notes to people who have sacrificed their earnings and time to help our efforts. I was so looking forward to just being truly grateful and thinking about our country and all the wonderful people who live here....to remember why I do this job, and then, I turned around to get a cup of coffee (to sip while I wrote) and when I got back to my perch, prepared to start tearing into it, the stack of addresses and notes I had grabbed out of the correspondence hopper had disappeared.
One of my Helpers was collecting trash for a dump run, mistook my precious pile of correspondence for trash, and threw the addresses and notes away. I am so frustrated. So nonplussed. I know he didn't mean to do any harm. I know he was rushing to get to the transfer site before it closed. I know that my pile of paper looked like any other pile of endless torn apart mail and packaging and law office detritus.
I know.
And it was in an unusual place. It was on the high, flat counter where we all usually drink our coffee in the morning, perched on high stools. Not on my sacrosanct desk.
He had no reason to think it was anything special. So he tossed the whole stack into a black plastic garbage bag, threw it in the back of his truck and drove away. I just rested my head on both hands and shook it wearily back and forth.
I finally had an hour, maybe two.
I pulled another handful of addresses out of the hopper. I started over with my task, with a new different bunch of notes and addresses, but I couldn't shake the thought that now that whole group of people will never hear back from me.
They won't know that I got their question or donation. They will just wonder about it, and maybe think I am ungrateful, or their package went astray or, or, or..... but there is nothing I can do about it now, so like so many other things in life, we go on. We do the best we can.
All of us. Together. Me and my Helper, who was so kind to stop by in the middle of his own busy day and pick up the trash.
Reminds me of another time when my dog literally DID eat a letter. It apparently smelled like Prime Rib, not that I noticed. That experience gave me a whole new perspective on the old "dog ate my homework" story.
Someone somewhere never got a reply, because, yes, my dog did eat your letter. All that was left was sodden bits the size of large confetti.
I've also been planning to get pictures taken of the dogs with their favorite toys. We thought it might be difficult to get through the judging, but as it turned out there was a minimum of fluster.
Bailee, my Mixed Breed Retriever-Pit Bull-Elkhound chose a long, skinny green and yellow alligator toy from the pile, Bonnie, the Accidental Corgi, joyously grabbed a red Crimson Tide Football, Sledgehead, our dutiful Mixed Breed King Corso, chose a more traditional plastic ball with all sorts of soft rubber protrusions she could chew on. Lady-like, Piper, our Border Collie, who shames us all with her good manners and restraint, was the only dog who appeared to understand the gravitas of judging anything. She poked around a bit, "smiling" and wryly nosing first one toy and another, before settling on a Flamingo from Florida.
The cat, Stripey, viewed all this goings-on with curious disdain. Clearly, it was a Dog Thing, to be observed, but never participated in....except....well, except that.... under and half-hidden beneath a stuffed octopus tentacle there appeared to be.....could it be? A tiny furry fluffy.....mouse?!?
It was!
So, Stripey claimed a toy, too, from our insightful friends who remembered the Cat was here and needed a toy, too. Thank you.
It looks like the Deep South had the right vibe for Alaskan Dog Toys. Maybe it was the lingering scent of green leaves and flowers and hint of sunshine? I dunno, but it looks like Florida, Louisiana, and Alabama took three out of four!
Harold's dogs have yet to weigh in, but they are in a different size and weight category, so the smaller toys have been reserved for their Choose-a-Dog-Toy pile.
We can hardly imagine the fun and glee that all these toys will give so many pets and families, especially as pets start their new lives as adoptees and are beginning the process of settling into new homes.
A big, big THANK YOU ---to all of you, and everyone who has contributed to the effort, to the Dog Toy competition, to the cat who was --- miraculously enough --- remembered. Your generosity and kindness, your thoughts and prayers and ideas, your efforts day to day mean the world to us. Even if all we can do is wag our tails across the miles.
There is some misunderstanding about our status and the treatment our guys are undergoing right now. Jim and I have not gone yet. We have had to buck bureaucratic nonsense to get Jim an "acceptable" ID. They are seriously interfering in his right to travel.
So we are here in Big Lake and didn't go with the First Wave to experience this new world of medical treatment ourselves. That's okay. We have plenty of walking wounded around here, wonderful people and hard workers who have lots of health problems that will provide a full spectrum "test" of this technology.
We've got new broken bones, old broken bones, missing bones. We have arthritic joints. Circulatory problems. Cardiac problems. Bleeding ulcers, enlarged prostate problems, you name it, we've got it. Type II diabetes. Parasites. Heck, we've even got Male Pattern Baldness and anemia. This is just a partial list....
The DNA analysis is very, very exhaustive, so whatever is wrong or "other" shows up and gets diagnosed in this process.
Sitting here with my stack of thank you notes, I feel a bit crestfallen. I didn't get as much done today as I wanted to, but at least I got an update off and at least one stack of correspondence.
As my Mother used to say, a good life is just a long string of good days. So we put one foot in front of the other....and, bit by bit, and piece by piece, we build our own miracles.
Love y'all!
Granna
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