CONGRATS AND CHARACTER FLAW REVEALED

First off, congrats big time to the Bronco and Seahawk fans. This should be a great Super Bowl.  As a come lately Bronco fan (truthfully more of a Peyton Manning fan) I am thrilled. It is always fun to have a horse in the race.  

Linda and Djan, I rooted for the Seahawks yesterday to win for your sake but come Groundhog day, I will be pulling for cutie pie, super human Peyton. Should be fun and for those of you who don't like football, think neat commercials and fun food.

For some reason, I have gotten a few hits recently on this old post from 2009 when I had few followers so I decided to re-post it.  Surprisingly,some of those followers are still with me. Bless you and thank you for hanging in.  I decided that even though this post shows a real character flaw of mine, I am rerunning it with the caveat that though I am not proud of my actions, I would do it all the same way again, except the Bucky part. That didn't end well for him. 

WEDNESDAY, MAY 27, 2009

WHEN I WASN'T THE BETTER PERSON

I met Flora and her mother when I volunteered with the Special Olympics in Florida. Every one in my office had volunteered. This turned out to be a rewarding job.  I was assigned to Flora as her "hugger" which meant I would take her to the various events, make sure she participated and give her a big hug and lots of praise when she finished each event.  

Flora was about 9 years old,  mildly disabled mentally and was a pretty good athlete. She surprised me with her shy sense of humor and delight in everything.  We hit it off immediately.

I met her mother Sally at that event also. Sally was also mildly disabled mentally. She and her boyfriend were migrant farm laborers who lived and worked year round in Florida. 

Sally declared me her sister and Flora's aunt that day. We became good friends and would visit briefly a couple times a month. I always brought treats for Flora and Sally who lead pretty meager lives.

One day when I visited, Sally was ecstatic. Someone had given her a minuscule chihuahua. This was the smallest dog I had ever seen. Sissy was a 2 and 1/2 pound, long haired, tooth pick legged, yapper. For as tiny as she was, she made a fierce racket. All I could think when I heard her was "better thee than me."

About a month later, Sally called me quite upset. She was having to move out of town and where they were going wouldn't take dogs. She wanted me to take Sissy. "You are the only one I would trust her with." she added making it impossible to say no.

I was in the middle of starting an animal rescue business and didn't need or want a yappy little dog but out of friendship, I took her.

Sorry it is an old picture of Sissy and not too good. I was too busy in those days for photography.  Wish now I had taken the time.

Few people like chihuahuas till they own one. Exactly when she crawled inside my heart, I couldn't say, but she did. Suddenly the yappiness fell on deaf ears and I no longer heard it. She became MY dog. She challenged all human and animals for my attention. 

At that time I also owned a 160 pound Great Dane. Loki and Sissy were my only pets, the rest of my animals were dogs to rebuild and find homes for. Sissy was not intimidated by Loki who was 64 times her size. He walked like he was on egg shells around her and she actually bullied him. 

I had Sissy about 6 months when Sally came back to town. One morning she caught me filling up at a service station. She said she was back in town and excitedly told me she could take Sissy off my hands now. I was stunned. I thought I had been given Sissy, not just taking care of her. 

I stammered, hemmed and hawed and finally with tears in my eyes and words choking in my throat, I asked where she was living. I told her I would bring Sissy by the next day which was a Saturday. I was sick at heart the whole day. I would cry, suck it up, then cry again. I was not handling this well at all.

When I got back to the office at the end of the day, there was a note on my desk from Sally. It said 'I see  you are hurting. Please keep Sissy and love her enough for both of us.' It was signed, your sister. The relief was overwhelming.

I had many dogs, Loki whom I adored, plus my rescues. Sally and Flora had no dogs and lived a rather bleak life. Were I the better person, I would have insisted that she take Sissy back but I wasn't and I didn't. She so out classed me that day. I accepted her gift gratefully if guiltily.

I asked Sally and Flora to come out to the shelter and pick out any dog they wanted. They did and selected a handsome little chihuahua named Bucky that I had recently rescued.   

I was ashamed of my relief when Sissy barked at them that day and would not let Sally pick her up. How small can a person get? I did not like me but couldn't stop me.

Sissy stayed glued to me for 15 years till her tiny heart gave out. I think of her still and selfishly am so glad I wasn't the better person that day.