You know – I realized that the perfect follow-on to my doggie saga would be a discussion about Gratitude and David Wilson’s comment below made me realize that I should have included it in my writing about Jackie. Gratitude is so important. Another one of my friends, Steve Sisgold, mentioned that I should be living in gratitude for Jackie, not just focusing on what my other vet advised (Steve was so good to me on Tuesday, letting me just cry). And I realized that I have a website in memory of Crystal and that I could just as easily create a blog to honor Jackie but not wait until she’s gone. And I will do that this weekend. I know it will be filled with the humor of Julia Child Wurzbacher who had to call her friends to learn how to boil potatoes – oh well….

But Gratitude is such an important part of success in life and since your relationships are part of life, the gratitude is vital there too.

Take a minute and ask yourself how you express your gratitude. That will force you to determine if you even feel gratitude and if you don’t, then that’s the starting place for you.

I have had many people reach out to me in the past two days because of this event. I was so touched. The folks at work are all dog lovers and they have reached out and allowed me to have a day and a half off. I needed to be with her (I spent most of yesterday either cooking and swearing as the water boiled over or trying to soothe her pain) and they allowed me that freedom. The people at both vets have been wonderfully supportive.

And most of all, I feel gratitude because of the fact that although Jackie is in pain and still has a long way to go until we control this (I’m thinking positively), I still have her. There are dogs at the specialty vet I go to that don’t have that hope and I watch the owners sit with them as the tears fall down their cheeks. I feel so much for these owners and wish I could do something to ease their pain or that of the dogs. I am grateful for what I have  and have had with Jackie. It’s hard to be grateful when she’s in pain but it’s the most important thing I can do.

You have to concentrate on gratitude every single day of your life.

  This is one of the reasons I created the Gratitude Journal for everyone. It’s up on the web and it’s free to download (it works on PCs only and at least works on Vista – not sure about  Windows 7 – would be glad for any feed back). Go try it out. It’s a daily journal and has a sticky for you to leave on your desktop and quickly jot down things as you think of them. Those items of gratitude are immediately transferred into your journal.

Have you hugged your Gratitude Journal yet today…Tell people you love them, tell them thanks, whatever you do, make sure you show your gratitude.

Thanks to all of you for your support and to David and Steve for bringing the Gratitude part home to me this week.

Terrie