friend in need

I grew up a diehard dog person and knew nothing about cats until we moved to Washington State and befriended some crazy cat people. One of the couples we met shortly after moving here was Tom and Sarah, two transplants from Ohio, who had two cats at the time, Elmo and Lucy, and they had countless hours of entertaining cat stories!

Misha, Aug 2007

Lucy and Elmo were pretty cool cats and then later came Misha, a young fluffy black kitty who was lots of fun. She loved to play and be silly. One time when Tom and Sarah were away for a few days, I got to look after Misha and in that time I really connected with her. These three cats were my first introduction to the crazy world of cats, my heart was open.

My heart holds a great deal of gratitude to Tom and Sarah, two delightful, amazing friends who have journeyed with us in life (the good and the bad) over the past 12 years. In addition to Misha, Tom and Sarah now have an 8 year old son and a young dog, both of which keep them quite busy.

Tom, Sarah, Laura, and me after hiking up to Lake 22, June 2003

Sometimes our blessed lives quickly turn upsidedown, giving us pause to consider the preciousness of life itself. Such a turn happened very recently when Sarah learned that she has advanced stage cancer. A few tests after the initial discovery revealed the cancer had spread to several places throughout her body. The prognosis given was grim. 

Sarah, Aug 2015

This Monday, the 14th, Sarah goes in for more extensive testing and exploratory surgery so the doctors can better understand the extent of her condition and then hopefully they can come up with a treatment plan. 

Blog friends, I am scared - we are all really scared. I would be immensely grateful for your prayers and purrs for Sarah, Tom, and their 8 year old son. Thank you.

Gromit needs purrs

My dear friend Lisa's beloved Chocolate Lab, Gromit, is in need of some purrs.

As you can see, Gromit has an amazing power,
he can make Lisa's face beam with joy.

Gromit's been battling cancer for some time and after a short remission, things doesn't appear to be going so well. He's had several rounds of chemo and now there are signs his liver is not holding up, while the skin lesions appear to be returning. They go back to visit the oncologist this morning.  Please pray and purr for their well-being.

Longtime blog followers may remember Gromit, he's shown up in many posts over the years. And did you know that Theo and Gromit are old friends? Yep, back in the days when Theo would travel, he would come with us to visit Lisa and Gromit at their house and Lisa always brought Gromit to our place when she visited.

Theo, eating treats off of Gromit's paw

Theo, preforming a quality control audit of Gromit's food dish

Gromit playing ball in our yard, while Theo snoopervises

Gromit loves to eat corn on the cob!

Theo loves to eat corn on the cob!

Gromit's a good-sized Chocolate Lab but that doesn't stop him from being a lap dog!

love

Rose daringly checks out Gromit

Harmony

Gromit                                    Nov. 29, 2014

Don't tell Theo, but Gromit's favorite toy is a stuffed cat. He's loved on this toy so much that Lisa has had to patch it back up, thus it has become known as Franken-kitty.

Franken-kitty, Gromit's favorite toy

Please send your purrs for Gromit and Lisa, we are all so worried about them.