AMEN!!

My Service Dog is a Portuguese Water Dog, 4 years old, sire was ACE, out of the ... having a Morphine moment here ... Oak Harbor, Washington. Sandy O.'s kennel. She is one fine lady.

Anyway, Tolly (named after our Tollycraft Boat, is a gift from God. I won't go into the details of how smart she is, but when my wife had her knee replaced, she taught Tolly how to take the clothes out of the Dryer in a few minutes. Tolly put them in the basket, then with a "rope" on the basket, she pulled the clothes to the back bedroom.

Stress --- please listen to the article above. My wife trains dogs at our church. She tells people all the time the stress in you goes right down the leash.

Tolly is a service dog and Medic Alert dog. She has saved my life 3 times since the 1st of May 2008. I quit breathing and will not start again unless you "force" me to. May 5th my wife was stressed over my condition, but was cleaning house. She saw Tolly standing on her hind legs, licking my face and I wasn't responding. It took my wife and a friend 30 minutes to wake me.
I knew they wanted me to wake up, I just couldn't remember how. Same with eating/drinking Chicken Noodle soup after major oral surgery. I could not remember how to swallow. So I let the soup fall out of my mouth, back into the bowl and I poured it out. All this time Tolly is taking her cues from my wife. Stress?
Tolly gets stressed. We tell her it is ok, she lays back down and takes her nap.

When I had to go to Denver last summer, to a major Respiratory hospital, Tolly would sleep next to me as I drove. I was on oxygen the whole trip. We have many photos of her laying next to me looking up at me.

Our boat, we were up on the fly-bridge, about 5 miles out of the Golden Gate into the Pacific Ocean and we are hitting 6-8 foot rollers (gentle rolling waves with enough distance between them it is not a rough ride), but my wife is concerned and stressed. Little Tolly was about a year old, but she read the two of us and crawled over to the "Captain's Chair" and put her front paws around the pedestal. I looked down at her and told her it was "OK". She went to sleep.

I just wish the Good Lord had made me smart enough to speak to her. We "talk" all the time. I wish she could live (pain free) as long as I do. It will be heart breaking when I bury her up on "Puppy Hill" with all our other beloved 4 footed "family" members.

Stress will shorten your life and your pets.

There is a story about 2 monkeys. They both get shocked every 30 minutes and they have a clock so they can watch it. One monkey (Chimp?) was given a red button so THAT MONKEY can prevent the shock. The monkey with the red button had a "nervous breakdown" from stress. If you want a good laugh, tell God what YOUR plans are. I wish all of you and your beloved little friends a wonderful life. God has blessed me beyond my wildest dreams. I have a wonderful wife, 5 good kids, 11 grandkids and my wonderful little girl sitting next to me. Yeah, I may die tonight from the CCHS, but I am living for today. It is all we have. Don't waste it. Take care and please don't stress our little friends out, they did not cause our problems and they don't deserve it.