Getting toys by name for Aunt Gloria
Gloria is one of my dearest friends. One of my guardian angels, who lives 2,000 miles away, in Arizona.
In January 2011 Gloria was been going through a very hard time. She recently had to have her beloved Greyhound, Mika, put to sleep, after a remarkably loving relationship. So remarkable that it was actually Mika who chose to stay with Gloria, despite being adopted by her daughter. When Shayna and I flew to AZ in the winter of 2002-03, I found Mika to be the sweetest, most docile dog I’d ever met. And she had these huge, expressive eyes. To see her and Gloria together is to have a hard time ever imagining them apart. To know that Mika curled up next to Gloria at night and gave her endless love was a source of solace. But Mika had a good, long life, and Gloria had done everything to make her comfortable in her final days.
Gloria also loved Shayna – and she was one of my guiding lights during my long search for her (for my “perfect” first dog), and for those first few months of being a dog “dad.”
So when I heard about what a rough time Gloria was now having, I thought, I’d like to something nice for her… send her a bit of a video greeting. This video is part 1. Part 2 is here.
Of course, Gloria heard about how Shayna can retrieve her toys by name – but she isn’t on the Internet, so I sent this to her on DVD.
Caution: Singing ahead!!! I mentioned to Gloria that I created an adaptation of “Oh, What A Beautiful Morning!” (from the musical “Oklahoma!”) just for Shayna, called “Oh, What A Beautiful Shayna!,” which I sing to her sometimes, most often when we’re driving, and she appears bored. Her ears perk up, she gets a huge smile on her face, and watches me singing it in the rear-view mirror… it’s kind of a sweet moment. After describing this to Gloria and hearing her laugh, I made the mistake of volunteering to sing it on this video, so…. be gentle!
