Dear Gretta

Would you ride with me today as I go to visit the Dad? Roads are pretty bad but I need to go anyway. You are so soft and warm and cuddly - and since you are in your spirit form, you won't have to put on your sox and boots and go outside. Remember how you always got an "A" in sox and then an "A" in boots? Even though I would give my right AND left arms to have you back, I'm happy that you are in a land of complete happiness and comfort.

Gretta, you will always be my heart.



Your mommie

Hi Gretta's Mom

Stopping by to let you know I am thinking of Gretta and Rufus.

I hope all of our babies are together playing happily and eating everything they love!

xxForeverxx

Thank you so much xxForeverXX,

Yes, I know our babies are playing and enjoying having friendly brag sessions about their moms and dads. Thank you for thinking of us.

Rufus and Gretta's mom

Hi Babyface,

When you get time, romp on over and have a play session with Mr Chew Chew, the big English sheepdog. Theey're so covered with hair that they look like huge dogs but they're mostly hair so he should be really fun to play with.

I saw the dad over the weekend. Saturday was wonderful but MF spoiled Sunday, as usual. And the Director of Nurses was a full scale battle axe - making all kinds of unfounded accusations about dad's special friend Krissy - who definitely didn't deserve it. I'm trying to decide what to do - to let the administrator know about her conduct or just swallow it. WOuld you please go to the Good Shepherd and ask him what I should do - and then whisper in my ear, please, Babyface? Thank you so much for helping me - again.

Right now I am an angry and hurt dog - like you were during those many cold, hungry and lonely months when you were all along on the desolate streets of Saint Paul. But you kept you beautiful, kind heart through it all and chose me to share it with. I will try my hardest to do what YOU would do. Accept it a go on. There's a wonderful person just up ahead - like you, I don't know who or where s/he is, but I saw you find me despite everything, so I believe that I will find someone or someone s who love me, too.

Thank you for choosing me to be your soul mate dog. I'm taking good care of the piece of you heart that you left with me and I can always feel the love and care with which you are treating the piece of my heart that you hold.

I love you Gretta. Always and everywhere. And forever.

Have a sun-filled day, my Babyface!
XOXOXOXOX

Your mom (with a tear in her eye)

OH baby-dog

Thank you for helping me. The situation got much worse and I found out that MF and three organizations were going to put the dad into a mental jail. Baby, you could see how crushed mommie was, just like you when for no fault of your own, you were kicked out of your house because you were old and just put out into the freezing cold.

People get like this when they are on the bottom of the professional scaele and have nobody to kick but the very people they are supposed to be hellping. The MOM, whom you never saw, used to say the peopple worked in nursing homes and government jobs because they couldn't get job in regular places where they had rules about what people could and could not do.

A wonderful woman, we call them lawyers, is going to help me. She costs a lot but she really KNOWS what to do. After talking to the two women most involved I learned that the situation was not as bad as it had been first told to me (these people lie a lot, so it is sometimes hard to figure out what is really going on). And I'm more hopeful now. BUt that is exactly what evil people do - they try to lull you into thinking they are being good andthat's alla lie and when you're not looking, they take out their swords and stab you in the back.

Gretta, my baby dog, thank you for helping me so much through this crisis. People were so cruel to you that they put you out of your home because you couldn't make money for them any more. They threw you out into the cold and snow of a Minnesota winter where you almost died - and they didn't care a bit. But some loving people helped save your life - even the dog pound helped you by snatching you off the streets while you were still alive. The beautiful Margir rescued you from there and took you into her house with her other beautiful dogs and nursed you back to health. Jeannie, my namesake, invited me to the adroption where we met - and a love was born.

I love you SOOOOOOOOOOOOO much Babyface. And I miss you that much, too. But I know you are alive and that we share a different kind of love now and that we will meet again in the Pperfect World, where we will be together forever. Our hearts and souls will again be complete.

Gretta, Gretta, Gretta, ..... the kindest chocolate lab who ever lived. Thank you for choosing ME to share your life and your soul.

Your mommie

Gretta's mom. You have helped me with my loss of Anna and she and Gretta are together now and helping you.

All the best from a fellow mom, Joy

Hi my sweet babyface,

Thank you for welcoming Anne into the Perfect World. Her mother has such a beautiful name: Joy. Thank you for reminding me to be kind like you are while I fight this battle for "the dad." I miss you SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much, Babyface. I miss playing "Who Wants to be a Wolf?" And who was LESS like a wolf than your are?

YOu know what? I'm going to move soon and all the stuff that was in our house has either been given to poor people or shipped to our new house - Trevor's house. So ..... I'm sleeping on your and Rufus's bed! AGAIN. Like I did after you went to the perfect World, because I was so sad and missed you so much. I still miss you exactly that much ..... no .... even more. But now I know you are right here with me in spirit form and that one day we will be together in the Perfect World - with Rufie and Bingo and all your cousins and all the friends we've made here on LS.

I love you, babyface, more than there are stars in the sky.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOOXOXOXOOXOXOXOOXOX

Your mom

Hi my sweet babyface,

I need you more than ever now that I'm fighting a battle to save the dad. I need to remember that it is about LOVE not VENGEANCE. You, the kindest chocolate lab who ever lived, keep my heart fixed on this when I'm tempted by thoughts like "I'll show HER." I need your kindness reminders more than ever, because I usually go into battle with all guns blazing and go straight after the one who has hurt me. You've taught me that kindness MUST be a part of everything I do. This is SO much harder than learning to be strong and brave, but please be patient with your mom - I will get it - slowly but surely.

I love you Babyface.

Your mommie

Hi beautiful

Mom is having a tearful day today - just like SO many of your days must have been before you rescued me. Thank you for the best five years of my life. I love you more than anything, my wolf.

Mommie

Good morning sweetie,

It's still SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO cold here. Even though I am very very sad and miss you more that anything in the world, I'm glad I didn't have to make you go outside in all this gosh-awful weather. I know you're in the Perfect World where everything is always warm and the shade is cool. You're the best, Babyface.

Your mom

Hi Babyface,

Mom is calling on you to do a special job today. There is a baby giraffe who just arrived at the Perfect World. A man did something that is so bad to him I can't even talk about it . You'll recognize him: he has VERY long legs and a VERY long neck. He has big spots and he always looks like he is smiling. We call this animal a giraffe. His name is Marius. He needs you, the kindest chocolate lab who ever lived, to be with him and be his friend. When things this bad are done to someone, they may have a few tears left after they cross the bridge so would you and Rufus take him to the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd will change any tears left, they will be changed into cool, sweet water for him to lick up with his giant tongue. Please stay with him for a while until he finds his relatives and makes some friends. Take him into our Musketeers group, too, OK? Your gentle heart and loving words will be like gold to him.

Thank you my baby. I love you more than enything in the world.

Your Mom.

Good morning my Babyface,

Thank you for taking such good care of the baby giraffe. We can see him smiling just a little bit after finding his aunts and uncles and grandmas and grandpas and cousins. He's completely forgotten anything that bad that happened to him in this earthly world. All he feels is the love of millions of people and that warms his heart and broadens his smile.

Gretta, my life has been SO enriched by you. Whenever i think of you, I remember the power of gentleness and kindness. Would you help me be kind to myself in a way only YOU know? Thank you Wolfie! Have a perfect day in the Perfect World.

I love you more than there is air in the universe.

XOXOXOXOXXOXOXO

Your mom.

Dearest Baby Gretta

Thank you SOOOOOOOOOOO much for walking with me on this grief-filled journey. Thank you for reminding me that strength is not the only thing needed - that kindness and gentleness i equally important. I see picture on you chewin on your bone or lying on the dog bed with the blue and white blanket over everything but your face. And, oh Gretta, how is miss my chocolate baby - the kinest chocolate lab who ever lived.

God bless you my eternal friend.

Your sorrowing mommie

Oh Baby G
I need your help today. Trevor's mom is very very sick. Could you help Rufus organize a prayer him for her today? Gather up all the animals you know and that know her and go to the feet of the Good SHepherd an plead for her life - by humming. That's what we've come up with since animals can't speak human words. Hum, or cheep, or moo, or whinny, or grunt or sqeak - and sound is good. Thank you baby girl. You mommie'ss heart is surely broken today.

Mom

Oh Gretta, you truly ARE "the great" like our wonderful Doctor Hinson named you. Thank you SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much for organizaing the prayer hum for Trevor's mom. Many many people and animals joined in. The Good Shepherd hear our prayers and hums and gave the doctors an idea to help Trevor's mom.

Gretta, you are the best. The kindest chocolate lab who ever lived. I love you up to the sky and back.

Your mom

testing this account

Oh Gretta

I am so sorry about not talking to you for so long. I drove all the way to Trevor's old house and then this site acted up and i couldn't get on it.

You know all about what is going on with Trevor's mom. We are all SOOOOOOOO sad. I need your love rays, doggie. A LOT!

Thank you babyface. I love you.

Mom

Hello Babyface,

I need your help, Trevor's mom is very, very sick and I am the saddest I have ever been in my life. Mrs Waggietail, could you send down some of your gentleness to soften my heart? Only you, the kindest chocolate lab who ever lived, and my very first dog, can do this for me. I know if you were here with me in physical form we would lie on the floor and curl up together or you would lick my face. From the Perfect World, you can do even more - your love is so much more powerful now that you have reached the Perfect World. Please ask the Good shepherd to help me, OK?

I love you, Gretta the Great.

Your mom

Hello my Babyface,

I will never stop thanking you for choosing me to be your mom. You were the first dog I ever had as a big person. I cried many tears over the life you had led before wonderful Margie took you in. And some more tears because I wanted you always to feel love in the heart. Somehow I think you were - and you sure are now.

Your beautiful chestnut color, your soft soft coat, your waggy tail, your sitting on the couch every night when i came home from work and saw you up there and your graceful getting down and meeting me at the door. Oh Gretta how I miss you. When tears fall, they are for everyone.

Someday I will join you in the Perfect World. I d on't know when but I do know that I am coming there. Then all of us will be together and we will never have to part again. Please put in a good word for me to the Good Shepherd.

I love you, Babyface - always and forever.

Your mom

Dearest Baby Gretta,

You know by now that Trevor's mom Bobbie has joined all of you in the perfect World. I wish i could have been there when she walked into the giant parade of doggie, kitties, bunnies, turtles - and even baby Marius - waiting to welcome her into the perfect World.

All of you could see how much she was suffering down here on earth and was headed to the Perfect World to join all of you. I know Trevor was at the head of the welcoming line as the Good Shepherd carried her in His arms into the Eternal Paradise. I know you have been curling up with her as she rests in the cool shade and basks in the love of not only God but all the animals whose lives she touched - and they are many.

Gretta, you have a heart as big as the universe despite suffering of your own here on earth and so did Trevor's mom.. She loved you on earth and now you can loved each other in the Perfect World.

My two dearest loved beings can be together - forever - where as an old song says, "in a land where we never grow old." I'll try my best to live so I get there, too, someday, so I can join your pack.

Gretta, How much I love you, How much I love Bobbie. How much I love Rufus. Thank you for bringing all that happiness into my life.

I love you, my precious Babyface.

Your mom

Good morning beautiful Gretta,

For the past month I have relied on the Great Shepherd and Rufus's strength to get me through the days and weeks since Trevor's mom left us and went to the Perfect World.

Now some cracks have formed and tears are escaping. They are a sign that now I need YOUR help. Because you were thrown out of your family as no loner useful. And then you wandered, starving and freezing, through the streets on Minnesota until you were almost dead.

I need your help to go on with the broken heart of living without a family

I heed your help to go on even though you can't understand what you did wrong to have this happen to you

I need your help to go on even though you tried your best to be the best dog possible and they still threw you out

I need your help to go on even though my heart is completely broken

I need your help to find a place to rest my head at night when my home is completely gone

I need your help to get up every morning and start the search for life, for warmth, for a place where there might be people who loved me

I need your help to endure freezing cold and a starving stomach

I need your help to keep that spark of hope alive in my heart

The spark of hope without which you would surely have died and we would never have found each other.

Life and hope, that's what I need your help with.

Year's ago when Trevor's mom was so sick that everyone thought she would surely die, a doctor gave us a plaque that said "Where there is life, there is hope."

That must have been your motto, my Gretta, and now I need you help to make it mine.

I love you sweetheat, the kindest Chocolate lab who ever lived.

Thank you my precious. And when I see you again, I promise we'll play "Who wants to be a wolf?" so you can roll over on your back and show your big teeth that never in your life hurt anyone.

Have a great day in the Perfect World, Babyface. XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Your mom.

Good morning Babyface,

I bought a book called "Beautiful Old Dogs" and of course went directly to the "anonymous" poems written from the old sogs' points of view aand I read the saddest poem I have ever read. Because it was about you. Because it was about a dog apologizing for having grown old. Because it was a dog asking "Please don't throw me away." My heart was shredded. I am still crying over that poem and over another one asking where all his favorite things were and where the family he had lived with all his life had gone and why he was living in a shelter cage where nobody wanted him and they all wanted the cute small dogs.

Gretta, thank you again a million times for choosing me that day so long ago at the adoption event - the first for both of us. For walking over to me ever so gently and laying your white muzzle in my lap and softly pawing my leg saying, "Please take me home." That was the kindest thing any creature of God has ever done to me. My life was changed in that instant - when I chose to hear the voice of your heart, the hope in your eyes and take you home, to your forever home. I did my very best to give you the best life possible. Thank you for forgiving me for all the mistakes I made. You are my first dog and you taught me how to take care of you. We lived in a very cold place so you had to go through the indignity of dog boost and baby sox so the boots wouldn't give your blisters. You always got an "A" in socks and an "A" in boots --- and an "A" in my heart.

Please be with me as my heart breaks for the loss of the dearest person onearth to me - Trevor's mom. I know you lost everything when your cruel people threw you out into the snow - you almost lost your life. We'll never be able to thank our wonderful Dr. Hinson for saving your life and your mom Margie for nursing you back to health and for giving us five wonderful years together. Will you walk over to Trevor's mom and tell her how much I miss her and love her? Even though I know everyone can understand each other in the Perfect World, Just look in her eyes and if she's sitting down, lay your head in her lap and tell her how much she meant to me and how much my heart is breaking with loneliness.

Someday, like you and I, we will all be together in God's Perfect World. I love you Baby G - forever and always.

Mom

Thank you for joining in the prayer hum for Trevor's dad two nights ago when he took so long to come home. He was buyinng a new car!! Thank you beautiful, kind girl. I know you will pray-hum whenever I ask you. Someday we can pary and hum together.

Your mom

Good morning Gretta the Great,

Today is need YOU especially. I need your gentle smile in the face of loneliness. I need your quiet persistence, mixed with tears and the not knowing what will happen next. I need your soft velvet ears to stroke. I need you to play "Who wants to be a wolf" seeing your lips drop back and expose a full set of teeth that could have looked frightening but because they were yours, they were kind and gentle. I need to hug you and just lie quietly on the floor. I'm looking for an house as much like our old house as possible in a neighborhood that is like our old one. My heart is strengthenedd just to know you are alive and well in the Perfect World. I love you, Gretta the Kind One. I love you.

Your mom

My Dear Gretta,

Aunt LoveMyMickey here. I hope you and Rufus haven't forgotten me and Mickey. We will never forget you......Gretta, I want you and Rufus to gather all your relatives and friends together in your Perfect World and have a prayer hummmmmm for your mommy.
Pray and guide her to the right house that will help her feel at home. And maybe you all could guide her to a nice big doggie so she won't be so lonesome.

I love you all!

Aunt LoveMyMickey

Hi Gretta Girl

Can I curl up with you and cry into your soft, sweet fur? The dad, who loved you so much no matter how many times you spilled his garbage all over the kitchen, is very sick now and I think he may be joining you soon. Do you think you could organize a prayer-hum for him, Sweetheart? I love him so much anad there is not a thing I can do to help him - except writing him little letters every day. When he shows up there in the Perfect World, please gently take his hand and show him around. Take him first to the Good Shepherd because He is the one who made all of us and who loves all of us and who made the Perfect World possible. Then take him over to the Irish section, where even though the people might not be his actual relatives, he will have the time of his (eternal) life singing and partying with the Irishmen. Did I ever tell you that the town he lives in had a parade for him on Saint Patrick's Day once?

Please be with me in spirit today, my Babyface. I need a kind soul around me and a nice pink tongue to wipe away my many tears - for everything.

I love you, Gretta the Great, and please tell our Rufie that I love him, too, OK?

XOXOXOXOXOOXOOXXOOXOXOXOOXOXOX

Your mom who loves you forever

Good morning Baby G

Mommy loves you and misses you more and more every day. You are the kindest chocolate lab who ever lived. As always, I need your help in adopting a kind heart (and you, now that you are in heaven, know how far away I am from that) and standing still and letting the Good Shepherd help me instead of always trying to do His work for Him. You can see now how wonderful He is and hoe He takes care of all His creatures and loves every one of them. Please put in a good word to Him for your mom and ask Him if He will help me release the burden of the evil sister.

I want my heart to be completely gentle and kind like yours is. Now I am carrying around a big rock where my heart should be because I get "fished in" by her ugly behavior. She's got complete control of the beautiful and kind dad. He's the only being besides you who has a completely kind heart. He loved you so much. He missed you when you went to the Perfect World. I love you, Baby, and like always, I need your help to fix my heart. I've tried so long to fix it and it just keeps on being shredded by the actions of the evil sister. I need to write a letter to God and try as hard as I can to leave it in His hands and He will eventually fix it.

I'm sure by now you've had some wonderful times with the WONDERFUL sister, Bobbie. Please stay by her side with her beautiful Trevor and tell her that I love her and miss her every minute of every day. There will never be an end to my sadness until we are all together in the Perfect World. You made it baby. Now I need to shape up and do what needs to be done so I can make it too and spent eternity with all of you.

I love you, Baby G. You are my first dog and always will be. Say hi to Rufus for me, OK? I'll write to him tomorrow.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

Mommie

Baby G,

Can you do me a big favor, please? Organize a prayer hum for Trevor's brother Dreamer? He's got a gut problem and it doesn't seem to be going away. Please ask the Good Shepherd to touch him with His loving hand and make him well. Thank you so much, Babyface - the kindest chocolate lab who ever lived.

I love and miss you more every day.

P.S. be sure to invite Trevor's mom. She can explain more about doggie's health problems and maybe send us a hint as to what she did to help them get better.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Your mom who loves you and will never stop.

always my first stop on LS

Hello my friend I hide my feelings to this day I miss my friend... I miss Gretta... I miss Rufus as you kneel by his cage with hope of... I know my friend.. Believe..
Great shepherd pass by are dreams.. Or do they can you hear... Angels sing for the love of... Walks in past dreams bring mind to run with... Jeanne what to say
and what might be the gift of life I have crossed in this wake of.. Heavy heart brings us to see...
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I'am lost in my thoughts as I hear a whisper Mountians tell a story as I run with my faith in hopes to find a friend that passes as we speak without words...
Shepherds lay within as we believe.. In search of the ones we love.. With willows lay within each breath we stop.. and listen to the great tree that sings
with the little girl that plays on the swing... As she speaks each word paves a runway for others to see as we hold arms wide as....
I miss my Gretta..
I miss my Rufus...
I miss My.. I miss..

I my friend lost and in my... Thunder is so loud tonight I hold my friend as I write letters to show a gift of love to others... As the great shepherd guides us
we find life as we fill are hearts so others my pass through to hold and live life as we watch the sun shine on are dearest friends...
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Dear shepherd watch these steps in are life as they mean so much to so many that reach for the love of are... Gift of life starts with the purest of hearts
as I watch the great gretta sleep in peace...
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Jeanne i'am...yet I seek a paw print in time as I weep... you my dear friend lift my head to see great beauty as I watch a perfect Tree..
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Stay strong my friend as you have given me strength as I... And always will be the light that shines...Within the beauty that kneels for are friends
is so bright I cant leave without a shower of emotion for all the love and good deed;... you have brought to are hearts.. see the beauty for yourself...
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Thy shepherd speaks of great love that whispers in all are hearts that we see as bright light brings clarity as we kneel....








Forgive my words as I see with my heart I speak to my friends....

Dearest Baby Gretta

Do you see the beautiful poem that My Doxie has written for us? His beautiful words always bring tears to mommie's eyes. Tears because the words are so beautiful and because you have to look behind the words to see the true and lasting love behind them. He who can write these beautiful, woven messages can truly understand how truly you have woven yourself into my heart. I am no longer just Jeanne, trying to make my way in this world as best I can - helping the people I can, when I can, and loving all of God's precious creatures, especially dogs, and most especially senior dogs, my precious white muzzlers. Baby Gretta, you are my first dog, You are the one who opened my heart. You are the one who gently showed me what a dog with a broken heart needed. Remember the night we make our promises to each other? Every time I though about you - freezing, starving, soul dying of sadness and fear, I wept for you. And I know you wept for me, too. A solitary soul. A steel heart - one needed to support a family of my own - half of whom loved me and half of whom hated me, but all of whom needed someone to go out into the world and do what was needed to feed them and house them and care for them. Just like you did with all your many puppies. And then suddenly we're turned out. What did we do wrong? We were worker, strugglers, providers. We didn't have the luxury of tending to our our needs, let alone our own hearts. But then we found each other. We spent oh so many nights telling each other our stories. And in the telling and retelling, our love for each other grew until it reached the heavens. At the time, the day I held you in my arms as you gently passed over the rainbow Bridge to the Perfect World was the saddest day of my life. Now the beautiful Rufus, whom you sent me to lighten my heart, is gone from this earth and has made it to the Perfect World, too. And the day of sadness which will NEVER be surpassed is the day I watched as my beautiful, incredible sister Bobbie struggled for breath, body eaten up by cancer - undetected in time by the best doctors in the mortal world - and finally came to the end of her strength and just stopped breathing. It was and always will be the saddest day of my life. That's what it looked like on THIS side. But on the OTHER side, what a day of rejoicing it must have been. Carried into heaven on the arms of the good shepherd. Perfectly free - free of pain, free of illness, free of medicines, free of hospitals, free on fear, free of sadness. Only health, happiness, strength, youth and infinite blue skies stretching to forever for her and all her friends - her dogs and her people. Love all around. And just like when God first created the earth, everyone speaks the same language, the divine language of love. God bless you Gretta Girl, for opening my heart to this Perfect World. Someday I will be there to join all of you in perfect, unending love and peace. Some bright morning .....

Until then, I love you more than there are stars in the sky.

Mommie

Good, good morning Gretta Girl,

Would you go with me to the dog sanctuary in a few minutes? My heavy heart would just like to curl up in bed and not get out and cry, but that's not going to help anything or anybody. And I know when I get there it will be OK. I'll probably get to clean the big dog room again today. That's OK, I love the big dogs and there arent' too many of them.

I'll write when I get home.

I love you from here to the sky and back. Are you taking care of Rufus and Georgie?

Maybe you could ask Georgie to send down some real strong love rays to his mom. She is still VERY VERY sad about not having him with her.

I love you Baby Gretta.

Your mommie

Good morning my first doggie forever!

During the next week I an going to visit the dad and I will need your gentleness and kindness more than I have ever needed it in my life. I know you know why. Gretta, you opened my heart to dogs and to love. Now I need to grab hold of your bravery in the darkest of your days when you wandered the ice cold streets of Saint Paul and almost starved to death. But this horrrible experience and the even more horrible one of being thrown out by your people for nothing you had done but love them and keep on making puppies they could make money from. I hope your heart healed during the years we had together. I would have done ANYTHING for you - and still will.

Please walk with me very closely for the next week. I need you, Babyface.

I love you more than ever. Someday we WILL be together.

XOXXOXOXOOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

Your mom

Good morning Gretta Baby,

Today all I want to do is hug you and cry into your soft. velvet ears, OK? You know why. Thank you Baby for searching all over the universe to find me. I love you. And please say hi to Bobbie and Trevor.

Thank you honey bun. I love you.

Your mom

Dear Baby Gretta,

First Trevor's mom dies, now just two days ago the Dad died. Your mom feels the way you must have felt when you were turned out into the cold November weather to freeze or starve. Now I am a pack of one, just like you were. I know that My little sister Bobbie and my dad are up there with all of your guys, probably relaxing by a campfire, all you guys filling in the Dad on how the Perfect World works. i can just see you guys up there relaxing by an evening fire, swapping tales of when you lived on earth here. Would you please have a "welcome hum" to The Dad? You know, like you always do - gather up all the animals and people you know and just hum as loud as you can - and we will hear it down here on earth and feel our hearts lighten just a little bit to know you are all OK and in perfect health and happy.

Now I have finally seen for myself why the old people call this earth a vale of tears. And why they live the last part of their lives longing to go to the Perfect World. it just made sense to me today. It's sad, but in a way it's not, because I know we have something much better to look forward to.

I love you, each and every one of you, each in your special way. Never forget that, OK? And I will try to live my life in such a way as to honor YOUR lives - and before we know it ....... there I will be, too.

Thank the Good Shepherd for sending you and your little brother to me. You are spirits to guide me on my way. Your hearts are part of my heart.

God bless you Baby G.

Good morning my baby Gretta

I know you are loving "the dad" SO much. He is such a gentle and patient man. Remember that time we forgot to put his kitchen trash can in the bathroom and went out to breakfast? When we came home, you had garbage strewn all over the kitchen. I was horrified but the gentle dad just said , "Don't worry. She's a dog and that's what dogs do." Then he reached over and petted your head.

Gretta, please stick by him as closely as you can. Walk with him as he ambles around God's Perfect Garden, meets all his friends - the ones that call themselves "Irish" are kinda loud but they laugh a lot. Listen carefully and you will hear them talk a lot about a softball team that most of them played on when they were young.

I love you Gretta. You taught me how to grieve when a part of my heart left me and went to the Perfect World. I learned all about how you were still with me in spirit form and many times I could feel your spirit around me. I never knew I would need to use what you taught me so often in this past year.

Please say hi to the dad and to my best friend and little sister Bobbie. Tell them I love them and there are now many pieces of my heart missing. Someday I will be with you all and all of our hearts will be whole.

I love you baby, my first dog!

Your mom

Hi my beautiful babyface

Remember how you moved from Margie's house to mine? Well mommie's moving today from Trevor's dad's house to a house in the middle of the big city of Baltimore. They don't allow any animals in that house so I will be all alone at least for a while. The city here is MUCH bigger than Saint Paul where we used to live together. There are houses stuck together called row houses and there aren't any yards to play in. Mom's apartment is on the third floor so in a way I'm glad that I can't adopt a dog right now. You know my favorite dogs are big white muzzlers and I surely wouldn't want to make a white muzzler climb up 48 steps four times a day. I can hardly do it myself! Oh well, I trust the Good Shepherd that He will someday make it possible for me to have another beautiful white muzzler like you and Rufus. Please say hi to the dad and little sister and your brother Rufus, who is probably already out playing with his friends. Please bring your spirit to mom's new house because now I am completely alone.

I love you, BabyFace, and I'll never stop. Your ashes are with me but it's your spirit that is important.

XOXOXO a million times.
Your mo,

Good morning Baby G

Today your gentleness is needed in two places: here with me and with a little kitty named Blanca, who is the baby sister of a beautiful cat named Princess who is a newcomer to the Perfect World. First, would you tell Princess and her mommy misses he so much that her heart is crushed - just like I missed you for so long until you sent enough love rays to me that My heart began to unfold? Then could you help me organize a pray hum for Princesses little sister Blanca. Princess's mommie took her in when she was only 4 weeks old and they are both going through some of the worst suffering of separation, Princess's mom from Princess and Blanca from her mother. We'll need to go to the cat section and find Princess and a lot of older mommy cats so they can send down some powerful love and reassurance to Blanca. And Princess will have to be in the center of the circle, sending love rays back to her sister and her mommie. It might be a little while until this happens but I know it is SO needed.

Thank you my beautiful chocolate dog - the kindest chocolate who ever lived. Mommie loves you every minute of every day and misses you like we miss the sun on rainy days here on earth.

I love you, Babyface.

Your mom

Good morning my beautiful chocolate dog,

I never have and never will forget you. I'm trying to take good care of the piece of your souls that you left with me when you went to the Perfect World. I feel you taking care of the piece of my souls you took with you. Because of our soul-mate-hood, I have been able to help several people here on LS by explaining how soulmates work and what happens when they have to go to two different worlds. The soul-piece exchange is what I tell them to explain why the ache in the heart and the empty part in the souls never goes away - until we are reunited in the Perfect World.

I hope your Auntie Bobbie is happy with how i am trying to keep her dear dogs Dreamer and Kelly's hearts filled at least part-way with love. When she left them, their little hearts were so confused they broke. I'm trying to keep them feeling loved in the heart. Kelly is a new dog! He and I are best-pals. Even Stan plays with him - "Gimme that toy" - and just holds out his hand like a claw pretending to try to get whatever Kelly has in his mouth. We laugh at his "giving lips" lifting his lips which, in a real situation would be threatening but is funny in play. He sleeps downstairs every night, whether I am there or not. Dreamer is the dream he always was. He's so gentle. He never protests when Kelly tries to steal his toy on the way to "going outside". He has the most beautiful spotted face I have ever seen on a cocker spaniel. His face looks like a miniature Harlequin Great Dane. And he is SO sunggly. He's a real comfort to Stan's heart.

Just like you are to my heart, my darling brown babyface. You are named after my absolute favorite food: chocolate. You are so gentle and kind. I know you remember the old man who first called you that - the old man who always met us on walks when we were walking our one block across Fairview avenue and he was walking toward us with his daughter. He always gave you a treat or two. He didn't even know you but you two were fast friends. Your gentle heart and trusting eyes bring out the best in everyone.. Thank you for choosing me to be your mom, Baby Gretta. It truly opened my heart to the miracle of unconditional love.

Until we meet again, please take care of all our friends in the Perfect World.

I love you and miss you SOOOOO much, Babyface.

Your mommie

Dear. darling Gretta,

Here I am in a strange town, in an apartment that is ten times as high up as the one we lived in when you were here on earth.
My day yesterday and today must feel like the day your first family threw you out in the snow because you were too old to make any more puppies for them to make money on.
Are you sure there isn't a way you could come back for just a half
and we could take a short walk and then play "Who Wants to be a Wolf?"
and then I could just hug you and cry into your fur like we used to?
I miss you and Rufus and Bobbie and The Dad so much that I have been crying all day.
But now I can feel your lovely spirit on one side of me and Rufus's on the other so I know I'll make it.
I'm so sad I don't even know what to ask for - just to let you know that I will love you every day of my existence.
Thank you for choosing me to be your person, your mom. It is the greatest gift of all - the love of one's spirit dog.
Say hi to your brother Rufie/ I'll write to him tomorrow.
God bless you, you Most Beautiful and Most kind.

With unending love .........

Your mommie

Good morning my beautiful chocolate baby.

Gretta, my first dog as an adult.
Gretta, who opened my heart to the love of a spirit dog.
Gretta, who slept on the dog bed and always waited for me to wish you good night before we turned off the lamp.
Gretta, who was always greeted by little Frieda like you were her dog
Gretta, who taught me that the "responsibility" of caring for a dog was really every minute a joy
Gretta, who I always protected with clothes and boots and lighted leashes and collars to make sure all the cars could see you
Gretta, who would go out with me four times a day, rain, cold, sun, heat, ice - the ever faithful.
Gretta, who always let me put on six and boots in the winter and you always got an A in both
Gretta, whom a public vet poisoned my mind and made me worry that you had Cushings disease.
Gretta, our inestimable Dr Hinson who always reassured us that you did not have Cushing's even though your blood work was always a little off.
Gretta, who always eventually cooperated in my early morning urine collections comedies - and Dr. Hinson was amazed that I had sterilized the containers I brought it to him in.
Gretta, named Gretta The Great by the best vet in the world.
Gretta, rescued by wonderful Margie as skin and bones, starving in the Minnesota November winter after you had been thrown out because your breeding days were over.
Gretta, thank you for choosing me to be your mom by meeting me at my very first dog adoption event and putting your head in my lap and pawing me to day take me home.
Gretta, I did and you gave me the happiest years of my life.
Gretta, there is no way I can thank you enough.
Gretta, I am taking as good care of the piece of your heart that you left with me.
Gretta, whose spirit is with me wherever I go, leading me on, guiding my paths - and most important loving me as I love you.
Gretta, I know we will meet again someday. It's God's promise.

I love you Gretta Girl.

Forgive me in my interruption of your Beautiful words of life as I read your post I can't help but see...
Who slept on the dog bed and always waited for me to wish...A Beautiful life with a Beautiful friend..
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Miss Gretta as you speak to tell a life long story that gives hope to others as i'am one of the many you have
given the courage to take a chance and help myself find a new friend when I was broken.. To listen
to your story and Bobbie that has truly touched my heart...As puppy pads line are floor as Trevor..
Cannot climb stairs... well without his mommy...
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as I walk a path in Honor of my friend..when I have read your story you have given me strength to travel and
find a new friend that teaches me more about my self then I could have known as my best friend... Gretta
by walking in your words of the beautiful care.. As I feed her Meatballs with Horse size pills..
As you take care of the reflection of your best friend....
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Gretta, Who slept on the Dog bed and made a wish for a special human to tuck her in at night...

Miss Gretta was just thinking of you and stop by as you write it helpes me move forward as you lay
a love one to rest they teach you more about yourself then you could have ever...
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Smile;)








































































Gretta, I know we will meet again someday....
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Good morning, Gretta Baby

Look at the beautiful thought and pictures that My Doxie has sent us - again. Don't his words go straight to the center of your heart and say exactly what you think and feel? He is such a good friend. And have you met his beautiful little brown dog? Be sure to look down when you're looking for him or play with him. He's VERY short. These dogs are called dachshunds - when I was a kid I used to think it was "dash hounds".

Thank you for being the first dog in my life. Thank you for opening my heart to the love of dogs - a love that goes both ways and chains you together with chains of love and caring for each other and protecting each other and taking care of one another - forever. The only way I can take care of you is by keeping in communication with you even though I cannot see you or hear you or touch you smooth fur. And by remembering all the things, small and large, that added up to a life together. Npw winter is coming and I remember how you wore both dog boots and baby shoes to keep your feet from chafing. You always got an A in socks and another A in shoes - and if helped a lot. I surely thought I would lose you during that last winder we were together, but you held on through the winter and into the warm spring when you waited for a warm day and went home in one day. I know you did that to spare me from having to watch my beloved dog from a long, slow, painful decline. It was your last gift to me on this earth and I love you for it to this day.

Gretta, sweetheart, could I ask you a favor? When you come across a dog who doesn't have people of earth who love them, ask them to join our family. We have enough love to share with all of them and more. Thank you Baby-G.

I love you and miss you more than the stars in the sky - and I think I know which one you are.

Until we meet again, don't ever forget who loves you.

Your mom forever.

Hi Gretta's Mom

Just stopping by to say I am thinking of Gretta and Trevor and all our babies playing together up there. I just imagine a sunny place where they have as much food as they want and they can just run freely all day together.

xxForeverxx

Hi Gretta Girl

I love you and miss you every day. You were my first dog as an adult. You showed me how to love a dog and you gave the most wonderful and warm love to me. You picked me out of all the people in the world to be your mom and best friend. I can hardly imagine. Every night when I came home from work and drove the car up to the front of the house I could see you sitting on the love seat waiting for me. Then when I walked up the sidewalk I waved at you and I could see you jump off the love seat so you cold meet me at the door. Those were the days, my friend, we thought they'd never end. But new phases came all the time. First my heart was broken by you going home to the Perfect World. You really gave me a huge blessing by going in a single day, not lingering on and suffering. That was my first heartbreak as an adult. I realize now that it was practice for the MAJOR heartbreaks I have had this year. I had to for my beliefs in soulmates and their search for each other and their finding each other and then when one goes to the Perfect World, their spirit is still with the one left behind in the physical world. I did see a glimpse of you one morning a few days after you had gone home. I was so sad I was sleeping on your dog bed and just when I opened my eyes I caught a 1/10 of a second glimpse of a dog, an Irish Setter, between the dog bed and your dog "restaurant." Although this dog wasn't exactly like you, I knew this was a sign from you that you were OK.

Remember I bought that beautiful soft brown pillow with Doctor Hinson's name for you embroidered on it. It was supposed to be for you ashed but they were too big to fit into it. Now I am in a town far away and don't know what will happen to me, but I sleep with my head on your pillow every night, with Rufus's book right beside me.

I don't know what I am supposed to do now, Gretta the Great. Could you please ask the Good Shepherd to guide my steps into the path He wants me to go? I am a lost dog now, Gretta, sweetheart. Will you come and find me?

Thank you so much for finding me the first time.

Your loving mommie

Dear Gretta's Mom,

My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family. I've been away from this forum too long. Just catching up now. I am so very sorry for your loss of Bobbie. Her kindness, her compassion, and her love for others are unparalleled. My little Hermy is probably giving her bunny hugs and kisses every day.

Sending you warm hugs too,
Hermy's Mommy

Oh what could be better than bunny kisses! Bobbie loved Hermy so much. Can you see them in heaven right now - all together in a big mass kiss and hug!

Thank you for sharing and caring, Hermie's mommie.

Gretta, dear dear Gretta,

I love you SO much. I miss you SO much. You are the kindest chocolate lab who ever lived. I know you are in the Perfect World with your brother Rufus, Trevor and his mom, the Dad, all your cousins, all our friends we've met here on Lightning Strike. I'm so happy for you. Someday I will be with all of you there. I believe it - I KNOW IT.

Gretta, baby, I need your help. I need some of your gentleness, kindness and hopefulness right now. Like you, someone I know and love has turned me out. My heart is broken like yours must have been. What did we do that made that person hate us so much that they threw us out? We'll never know. But we found each other for a reason and this is it. A girl and her dog - together. Together we will make it. And if I can learn your kindness, we will not have to fight anyone or any thing so we will survive.

I love you, Gretta. I wish I could curl up with you and sleep on the dog bed. Or look behind me on the sofa and say good night doggie to you just before I turned off the little lamp. And we could sleep peacefully all through the night.

Gretta, with your image always before my face and my heart I WILL survive and I promise I WILL join you someday.

With tears and love,

Your mommie

Dear, darling Gretta, the dog of my heart

It's Christmas here on earth. Remember all those times we went to visit the dad and there were presents and singing and, although we had to leave you at home, the dad and I went to church and then to a church dinner?

This year, with Trevor's mom gone from earth and the Dad also gone from earth, done here we are very sad. Would you tell each of them how much I miss them and love them? And your brother Rufus, too.

Thank you, Gretta the Great. for teaching me how to always have hope, always to have courage to go on, and in the process of all that suffering and almost starving and freezing to death, you never lost your good heart. I'll never forget the people we met on walks, people who didn't even know you, would say what a kind dog your were. They could see it in your eyes, but I could see it in your heart. Remember the kindest and most capable dog doctor in the world? The one who gave you your name "Gretta the Great"? When he saw you after you had lived with the blessed Ms Margie who had rescued you the day she went to pick up another dog at Animal Rescue and "just couldn't leave that lab!" he said I should have seen the pictures of you that they took right after you were rescued - and I thought he meant the X-rays! How he laughed when I told him I sterilized the pill bottles AND the ladle I used to collect your samples to bring to him? We must have looked like mad beings with me running around behind you with that crazy ladle and eventually finding the stream and getting some into the ladle, only to have it all spill out when you moved! Sometimes we didn't get enough sample until we got to Summit Avenue.

I love you and miss you SO much, Babyface. Thank you for choosing me at my first adoption. Thank you for teaching me about courage and about never giving up. Thank you for teaching me how to grieve, so that when I REALLY needed it, I would be at least halfway ready, Please tell my mom and the Dad and Trevor's mom (especially) and your brother, Rufus My Big Black Dog, all your cousins and all the people and animals I know that I love them and miss them all and that if I am good like all of them were, I will be there with them one day.

Merry Christmas, Gentle Gretta!

Your mom.

My dearest Gretta,

My first dog as an adult. The dog of my heart. The kindest chocolate lab who ever lived. You kept me grounded, kept my feet on earth and gave me a reason to get up in the morning and create an orderly life for you and even walk around the block just before we went to bed. Sometimes it was SOOOOO cold. I really felt bad for you, having to go out in that freezing cold weather, but you never once complained or resisted, Even when, to keep your rear paws from accumulating show and ice and your not being able to walk on them, i made you wear dog boots. Then to keep the seams from rubbing on your feet I got you some baby sox and we played "You got an A in sox, Sweetheart." and "You got an A in shoes." you were so patient. I loved you so much. I hope you felt love, too. Wonderful Dr. Hinson, your doctor, said he had never seen a dog and person who loved each other so much.

Now I am in Trevor's mom is gone from the earth to the Perfect World where you are. The Dad is gone there too. And your Brother Rufus. And Trevor-Forever. I miss Trevor's mom so much. We were kids together and when we grew up and became adults we were SOOOOO close. I came here to try to help her husband take care of her and to be with her when she was suffering. Now the Good Shepherd has taken her home and she, like all of you, are perfectly happy, young again, and in perfect health and youth. But, Baby G, someone is acting like a total fool and that is Trevor's dad. He professed to love her more than anything else in this world, and I believe he did. He stayed by her side during all the months and years she spent in hospitals over the years. I used to see little notes that Trevor's mom had left for him telling how much she loved him. And now he is disrespecting her in the worst possible way. Just a few months after she went to heaven, he couldn't stand the loneliness so he started looking for a girlfriend. After a few false starts, he's glommed on to a woman and he acts like he has completely forgotten about Trevor's mom. My heart cries every times I come here and see fewer and fewer signs of Trevor's mom here. And the crowning blow was when I was taking some clothes I had folded upstairs to his bedroom and saw NO pictures of Bobbie but instead a double picture of the new woman - AND he had turned the picture of Birney face down so he couldn't see it. My heart broke for the hundredth or thousandth time. I didn't say anything because it's no use talking to him, he's just going too do what he wants, which is disrespect the most wonderful woman on earth. He's not even thinking straight. Every night he writes this letter to Trevor's mom and puts it on the computer. In it he tells her how wonderful, one-of-a-kind person she is and how much he loves her and how she'll always be first in his heart, etc. etc. and then he turns around and gets a girl friend. Gretta, please send me some courage rays, 'cuz I need them.

Right now he has gone to meet this girl friend in a town about 15 miles away and he is very impaired and unsafe to drive.He's taken some narcotic pain pills his surgeon prescribed for him because he is in pretty bad pain from something that needs operating on a week from today. He also drinks a lot of wine on top of it and is still feeling the aftereffects of his day yesterday when he spent the whole day getting various medical tests that are needed before surgery. First he nodded off twice today for hours at a time, couldn't remember what prescription he was supposed to fill, forget we had breakfast at IHOP, forgot to buy flowers for Trevor's mom's grave, went to the gas station to get gas but he had forgotten his wallet at home, then looked everywhere until he found the wallet, changed pants because while trying to pump gas he got some salt on the pants he was wearing, then lost his keys and looked all over for them until I suggested that they were probably in the salty pant he had just taken off. I confronted him about it. I told him he was not safe to drive bit that i wasn't going to do anything like call the cops or anything like that.

Gretta, I know your life was filled with heartbreak. I tried to give you some happiness while you were with me. We had a lot of fun, didn't we? And I just couldn't part with your dog bed and your food-and-water stand when I moved here so I brought them with me. Please ask the Good Shepherd to send a little beam of cool water to ease my anger and sadness about the despicable actions of Trevor's dad.

Thank you for being my dog,, Gretta. Thank you for finding me at that adoption event. Thank you for coming up to me and gently laying your head on my lap. I keep thanking you for doing that, for choosing me, for finding me, for coming to me and bringing with you a whole universe of joy and love and reason for living with you. You changed my heart and my life, Baby Gretta. You are my heart and soul. Soon and very soon I will be with you forever.

Rest well, my sweet. Your mommie loves you.

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Forgive me Miss Gretta;) Human request as iam sure you sat with you'r head upon an angels heart listening to many hours of Popsy Dixon.
Jeanne good luck on Friday and it's good to hear you moving forward in your life as your story's reached many people along with all of
LS people that have come forward as when you speak of your friend they have a way of healing others..

Jeanne when you attend Sing Loud;) as your voice carry's a beautiful story of your life with all your friends and my Angel Bobbie...



















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"When he was finished singing and was signing autographs, a lot of
people would ask, 'Where did you get such a beautiful voice?' His
answer to everyone was,'It was a gift from God.' "

By Ellen Robertson Richmond Times-Dispatch