Good evening friends.  Tonight with great sadness the world says goodbye to Stormy.  She was a member of Tanya Strasser and Family.  Stormy was one special angel and will always be remembered.  Let’s here from Tanya herself on her fallen angel Stormy.

Here’s Tanya;

My Stormy was 13 years old. She was a Rottweiler German Shepherd Cross. She was a rescue from Paws and Claws.  We had her for 11 wonderful years.  Her previous life before us was filled with abuse and neglect. She was abused by a man and was very hesitant around men even to her very last day. Especially when it came to men coming to the door when my husband was gone.  She would stand between me and the strange man and not let him in the house until I told her it was okay. This was not something I taught her ever. It’s simply came from instinct.

For her size she was very kind and gentle and loving especially around children and our cats.  She was my guardian and protector my heart my soul my love and she is deeply missed. The grief that I feel is so very deep right now. I’m not sure how life goes forward without her at this point. It is so hard to watch our other two dogs Humphrey and Bella both Boston Terriers look around the house for her. I grew up on a farm, and while we had dogs they were outside. Stormy was my first dog that I was allowed to have in the house and she has left a very deep void.  Not sure how to move forward at this point. She had struggled with arthritis in her back knees for close to two years. Last winter here in Minnesota was very hard on her. My husband and I had decided that we would not put her through another winter. However we thought we had more time with her than what we did. Thursday she started to refuse food. She also became much more lethargic and the spark went out of her eyes.

She also stopped wagging her tail which was not like her at all. Sunday night I fed her cat food as that was the only thing she didn’t refuse. Prior to Sunday night she had had four accidents in the house in the previous week. That was not Stormy at all. This morning while I was in the shower I heard her vomiting yet again. She had vomited everything that she had eaten in the last previous days the following morning after she ate it. So we knew something was wrong. in addition to the vomiting the undigested cat food she also had had explosive diarrhea from my kitchen all the way into my living room. when I came out of the bathroom and saw her lying on the floor and she gave me the most helpless look I have ever seen in an animal’s eyes I knew it was time to say goodbye. A Tearful phone call to my husband made him turn the semi around and come home where we took her to the vet and she passed  peacefully with her head in my lap. When we received her diagnosis of arthritis I had promised her then that I would not let her suffer because I was too selfish to let her go. Today I fulfilled my promise to her and my heart shattered into a million small pieces.  I know it was the right thing to do and I have no regrets about that. My only regret is that I didn’t have more time with my precious Stormy.

Tanya that was a very powerful and moving story.  Thank you for sharing it with us.  Once again, sometime the last loving me we can make is to end their suffering.  Rest in Peace Stormy.  Sammy & Family thanks Tanya for giving Stormy a life of love and caring after a very tough start in life.

Tanya Strasser thank you for making the world a better place, one animal at a time.  Nobody can change everything, but everyone can change something.  When you think of it in those terms you know you’ve made a difference.  Tanya made all the difference in the world for Stormy, and maybe that did not change the world, but it sure changed Stormy’s world.

Stormy although Sammy & Family never got to meet you, we will miss you dearly.  You had and have the eyes of an angel.

No lives will go in vain, no pain will go unnoticed.  Amen.  Dr. Harp Seal for Sammy & Family.

Good evening friends.  What a great weekend this was.  I hope y’all felt the same way.  If you did not, try to get a big sleep tonight and start a new tomorrow.

Things can always be better and things can always be worse, the question is what am I grateful for today ?  You know when I was down and out in my life which was basically about 40 years of it, I was not grateful about anything.  If anyone feels that way, let me help you see the prerequisites for feeling grateful.  Some of things I used to say to myself to jump start some gratitude were; “my life isn’t over, its just delayed”, or “tomorrow might be a better day, let me at least give it a chance”, or “maybe i can feel more useful in life by helping someone else” — and there are countless other things you can say to yourself to help propel feeling grateful in your life.

But the point of these statements is to instill some hope in your life, a purpose for your existence.  When you execute and act of some of these Proclamations, low and behold some better things start coming into your life and guess what happens then ? You start feeling grateful like anybody else does.

Ok, so back to what I am grateful for today.  On this Sunday, June 7th, 2015, I am grateful for the slogan; “The best things in life are free”    —- Oxygen, water, love, beaches, nature and so on and so on —-    Obviously I could’ve mentioned all the personal things I’m grateful for as well, but its nice to acknowledge the roots of all of it because without all that free stuff I just mentioned, none of us have anything.

OK, lets close out with 2 positive notions;

1. If you ever want to experience creating a miracle, rescue an animal and give them a loving home.  That is a higher sense of purpose that will take you to unimaginable heights.  You will be saving a life and in return they will make your life.  That’s where the slogan; “Who rescued who?” who came from.

2. You have the right to be happy, exercise it.  Its not like an application to get into college where you can get rejected. Everyone gets admitted to happiness.  But you have to choose it.  If you don’t know what makes you happy, that’s OK, at least stop doing things that make you unhappy.  From there you will have a clearer glimpse on what might make you happy.

Signing off from Puerto Rico on day 147, Scott Smith for Sammy & Family.