Rabbits, Dolls & Cats

Rabbits to all --

My friend Karyl says that's it a tradition to end and begin a year with "Rabbit!" I'm not sure where the tradition started, but 2011 is the Year of the Rabbit -- or will be when the lunar new year begins in February.

I chose a horned frog because TCU won the Rose Bowl on New Year's Day. They kept saying it was a small school -- well, with 9, 000 students, I guess it is small compared with the huge California universities, or the University of Texas at Austin -- Big colleges are larger than some small towns ... Shoot, TCU has more students than some Texas towns (like Whitehouse where Four Winds Faire is located).

2010 ended on a solemn note. My mom put her beloved Ginger, a 9-year-old dauschund, to sleep on Friday. Ginger had developed diabetes that would've required 3 injections a day and a strict prescription diet ... All the old memories of my dad's death 21 years ago combined with her own worries about her ability to take care of an ailing dog combined. When she tried to hold Lola, my terrier, so I could clip her nails, Mom didn't have the strength to keep her still -- and Ginger weighed twice as much. Karen, Joy and I visited my mom and Ginger on that last day ... Ginger knew something was wrong; she gazed at each of us. I know Mom had been crying -- she was crying on Friday. I don't know whether her decision was a betrayal of Ginger's love and trust, as Joy says, or whether it was better than our decision to keep Lady Orchid who suffered with cancer until she passed away ... Either decision is hard -- Rita Mae Brown once wrote that animals gave us their love and trust, and in return we cared for them ... and the hardest choice was knowing when it was time to let go and let them pass away in dignity and without pain. I just don't know ... On Facebook, Nancy McMahon posted a memorial to her Missy, who had to be put to sleep (at age 22!) 2 years ago. I still remember Mad Margaret and Calpurnia, my Houston kitties, and Del the scarf kitty ... Ticky, Joy's dog who moved down with us, Amber Sue Dancer and her sire ... Skipper, Joy's parrot who bit my ear, and Harry Tiel Stone who would turn on his back for me, and Pertwee the monk parakeet. Our lives have been touched by so many animal friends. Skittles now sleeps on the computer monitor while I type -- Margaret would do the same; however, she always made sure her tail draped over the screen. We remember them at their strongest; I hope they remember us at our best when we meet on the Rainbow Bridge.