Pete was the best gift I ever received. The next best gift was a GPS. The person who gave me the GPS knew I was lost and needed help finding my way home. The givers of Pete did not realize just how instrumental he would be to helping me find home again.
Pete came into my life after the death of my parents. I needed a good laugh and he supplied all the reasons why I should. He loved people and wanted everyone to be happy. Pete’s resume is better than mine. Before he was a year old he starred in a TV commercial, he was interviewed by several media outlets in Memphis for his work with the Arthritis Foundation (pet’s get arthritis too), and the Humane Society. He and I were a Delta Society Pet Partner Team. Pete was one of the first dogs allowed in St. Jude Children’s hospital to see the patients. He also visited the children at the Ronald McDonald House and Le Bonheur Children’s hospital. As I think of him now, I remember not only the times he made me laugh, but also the joy he brought to others when they needed it the most. Oh, how he made the children laugh. And then he could be so still and give comfort to the worried sibling of a sick child.
His last “official” job was being “Doppler” the weather dog for a local TV Station. He taught children how to be safe in bad weather as well as how to be kind to animals.
I was told Pete was a Master Healer. He healed my broken heart many times. I now struggle with the emptiness and loss I feel since he returned to God. I am choosing to celebrate his life and not to let his dying from cancer define it. He may not have beat cancer, but he was more than cancer. Pete will always be my son and my heart.
