Nov-Dec 2012: Select videos
A compilation of the best videos taken since Shayna’s awful Oct. 30 diagnosis.
01Dec12: With Dakota at AHS
Shayna and I visit with one of her two only dog friends – Dakota, the wonderful three-year-old Border Collie, the first dog she’s been able to play with off-leash since Nov. 2002.
01Dec12: A walk-run in the woods with Shayna
Shayna’s been having up-days, and down-days. This was one of her more up-days, as you can see. She loves to walk through the woods behind our place, and on this particularly warm morning, it was a delight.
30Nov12: Walking-running at Pen Park, and visiting Dakota
As I note, the day before, Shayna had a big day at the Senior Center, running around and pouncing on her toys like a 2 year old. Given her medical condition, she might be expected to need some time to rest up and recover after that… but to see her here, now, running after her ball… it was a delight that warmed my heart in a hundred ways. It’s things like this that help to keep me motivated through these pretty rough times.
26Nov12 Getting toys by name
She’s the smartest girl I know!
17Nov12 Glowing Shayna at UVa
Glowing girl!
And with Dad, on the UVa lawn:
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15Nov12 Shayna excited getting her toys by name
Sometimes, Shayna gets so excited by the prospect of doing our toy-retrieval training that she starts yelping and howling for us to start. Considering two weeks prior she was given a terminal diagnosis, and had been (to my eye) not far from it, to see this – to experience it, to feel her joy and love and warmth and optimism – was like cool water to my parched mouth. I have never known a more inspiring, loving “person” than Shayna.
13Nov12: A walk/run in the park with Shayna
The first video I’ve posted in a long time, because of some very bad news we got recently regarding Shayna’s medical condition. Shayna and I walk (she runs, partially) through beautiful Darden Towe park in Charlottesville, VA, having a grand time. I talk throughout the video to our Aunt Gloria, one of our guardian angels, way out in Arizona. Caution, singing ahead, my adaptation of “My Girl” for Shayna. Be gentle.
11Nov12 Doing our toy training on AHS pinebed
In our ten years of living near Albemarle High School (Charlottesville, VA), Shayna’s loved to play at this little pine bed next to their raquetball courts, but we’ve never done her toy training there. I thought it would be an ideal surface on which she could run (very soft), and that she’d enjoy it – which, as you can see, she did:
