Phil, I'm so glad that Skip is doing so much better now. No wonder you love
him so much. It's incredible how much love cats and dogs can show us, and
that love is precious. They always, know when something is wrong, and they
really do have a way of making us feel better.

Unfortunately, I'm allergic to cats.

Dean and Betty's little dog Mitsy is so loving. She does the same thing.
She crawls up my back or even the front of me, and she goes around my neck,
and she licks my face, and my ears. Oh how she loves those ears, not just
mine, but everyone's ears. I don't like her licking me on the mouth, but
it's funny, because when I turn my face away, she just keeps on trying to
get at my face. It's so funny and it's so very loving and sweet. I just
love that little Mitsy.

Mitsy is a Mexican Chawawa. She's so tiny and so cute.

I hate it when animals get sick or hurt, and that is why I don't have any.

Carolyn's little Tea Cup chawawa Brandy is just as sweet and loving as
Mitsy, though a little larger than Mitsy. I wish we had Brandy, even though
she's a yapper, she's so sweet and loving.

Thanks for sharing that precious story.

Love and Blessings,
Pat Ferguson
At 01:07 PM 9/29/2005, you wrote:
>I appreciated all the comments and prayers for Skip.  He is fine now but he
>has gone through so much sickness in his short little life, Sandy and I get
>a little nervous when he starts acting funny.  Let me explain why.  I was
>reminded of what I am about to explain when reading Kathy's story about
>Chris.
>
>Skip is pretty small.  He weighs about 8 pounds.  Over three years ago now,
>my second experience with depression and anxiety attacks was coming on.  I
>could feel it coming for several months.  I tried everything to stop its
>advance upon my life.  Reading my Bible in huge daily chunks, praying one
>and two hours a day, and many other such things.  I was an assistant pastor
>in a small church at the time, too, so I was very involved in church work.
>I taught the young people's Sunday school class.  Yet, I felt the depression
>coming.  I often hear people tell me, with whom I pray, that they are told,
>by even those who are in their family and love them the most, to just snap
>out of it.  Get busy.  Keep your mind occupied.  These are meager efforts,
>at best, in stopping depression.  I well remembered the 13 years earlier
>when I had been unable to work for two years due to the depression I had
>then and I fought as hard as I could this time to stop the approaching
>darkness I could feel was coming.  When it struck, it was a thousand times
>worse than 13 years ago.  I became nearly physically incapacitated at times.
>
>During the days it was advancing, stocking me if you please, I spent times
>on my knees are our living room rocking chair in tears, praying and seeking
>God with all I had.  I often did this during times everybody was gone.  When
>Sandy was out shopping, for example.  Some of those times on my knees, and
>sometimes on my face, praying and begging God to help me, little Skip would
>come around.  I would ignore him since I was trying to focus on the Lord.
>Skip would start putting his front feet on me but eventually, he would leap
>up on to my back and walk up my spine to my shoulders where he would stand
>and try and lick behind my ears.  I would put him on the floor but he would
>repeat the whole thing over and over until I often found myself laughing and
>sitting on the floor playing with Skip.  He didn't stop the anxiety from
>eventually overtaking me but he has special meaning to me just because he
>knew something was wrong and the Lord used him to show love and kindness to
>me as I felt the hopelessness all around me.
>
>Phil.