Quick update on Sissy-Biskit: Sissy is doing just fine and enjoying her rounds at the Boulder County hospitals. She has had one unique experience already causing me to shake my head in amazement, but that is all I have managed to catch so far during an official visit, that is. She is such an active dog and moves between visits like something just short of the speed of light. She is already learning the routes and knows the next stop. We settled on tempting her with Cheerios breakfast cereal as treats. She loves those a lot so her visits are rewarded with the person being visited feeding her some Cheerios. Sissy is about at her
Sissy Says: These little sheep are all mine!
correct weight now (so says her Vet) so we are being careful to keep her in tip-top shape. Just like Tilda, Sissy has lots of good visits and then some visits she could care less about and is ready to move on quickly.
Sissy is now a professional Stuffed Toy Herding Dog. I developed the title, Sissy does the work! She is simply amazing how she takes such good care of her stuffies……she still has her first one and it is without damage as are the other 30+ stuffies. They are all her babies. She herd’s them into a pile and then wraps her self around the pile or buries herself in the pile. Her favorite thing is for me to pile all the stuffies on top of her. Then she goes to sleep as everything is calm and okay. She knows them all by scent and can quickly pass over the pile with her nose and immediately knows if one is missing. If there is, she will go on the “herd” to find it and bring it back to the pile.
Tilda’s Friend Tara wrote a letter that she wants to share:
I wanted to share with you that we believe that our first black lab, Sam, picked out Buddy for our family. Sam was very sick his whole life, and we lost him when he was just 8 years old. We got Buddy 6 months after Sam died, and some of the coincidences and similar behaviors between Sam and Buddy are just uncanny, similar to what you describe in Tilda’s Blog!
My family always said that Sam would have been an incredible therapy dog, but unfortunately he was VERY dog aggressive (probably because of the numerous medical issues he suffered as a puppy and an adult), so we never pursued therapy work with Sam. But this missed opportunity with Sam was absolutely the motivation for me to put Buddy and myself on the wait list for Boulder Community Hospital.
Sam also helped us to train our little Stellaluna, who was a real wild child when she was
Stella is a very pretty girl!
a pup (we actually chose Stella because she was so fearless, we knew we needed a dog with a personality like hers to get along with our Sammy). Many of Stella’s behaviors today are ones she learned from her big brother. I have Sam to thank for getting my Dad and I involved in therapy dog work, and for guiding us to our sweet Stella and Buddy. Isn’t it amazing the lasting effects that our dogs have on our lives, even years after we have to say goodbye?
Anyway, I just wanted to thank you for sharing your experiences with Sissy on Tilda’s Blog. This one really stuck a chord with me, thank you!
Tara
Note: Sissy had a most interesting visit with Tara in a parking lot one day a couple weeks back. It was the first time they met and those two fell in love immediately and it looked to me like they were having private conversations between them. That was very touching and sweet plus it caught my attention as Sissy was really moving into Tara with purpose.
And then there were the Butterflies:
For many years now, I have spent a great deal of time working with antiques and collectibles specializing in clocks, vintage movie equipment, typewriters, etc. One thing about that industry, you get to meet a lot of wonderful people who are associates doing the same thing with other items or customers interested in similar things. One of those people is a lady named Linda Najjar who is also one of Tilda’s Friends. Linda and I go back a few years when we were both collectible dealers and rented space in a local collectible store. Linda has since become a published author writing short stories of her real life experiences. Recently, she wrote one that involved Tilda and myself several years ago. This story really happened exactly as she described and it is reprinted here with her permission:
A CLUSTER OF BUTTERFLIES
© Linda Najjar January 18, 2012
After my mother died I inherited her collection of vintage costume jewelry. Treasure hunting at garage sales was her weekend sport for fifty years and she loved to show me all the stuff she’d found. To revisit our good times together I sorted through boxes of baubles and bangles she’d collected. The memories of my mother were dear to me, not the items themselves, so I kept only a few items to remind me of her, ones that I would like to wear and I decided to sell the rest of her collection. I rented a display case at a local antique mall and filled it with her great finds.
One sunny summer morning I stood in my garden of ripening apples and pears, and I smelled the sweet fragrance of roses and lavender. The multitude of butterflies around me inspired me to pull out all Mom’s jewelry with a butterfly motif. A pewter box with a butterfly on it, an inlaid butterfly ring, filigree butterfly earrings, a butterfly cloisonne pin, and butterfly necklaces. Mom loved butterflies!
After pricing each one I arranged these butterfly themed pieces on a black foam core board. I wondered if I should add a title of “vintage Butterfly Jewelry” but saw that all these butterflies spoke for themselves. I then covered the display with butcher paper and white plastic bags to insure its safe transit across town in my car.
At the antique mall I carried in my wrapped up display like I was delivering a pizza. Daryl, a fellow dealer, shouted from behind the counter in his booming six foot tall voice, “Well, Hello, Butterfly!” I stopped in my tracks, or, rather, I hovered mid-flight. There was no way Daryl could have seen what was inside my carefully wrapped package!
I’d never heard Daryl call anyone “Butterfly” and I’d never been called “Butterfly” by anyone! “What’s wrong,” he queried, “Don’t you like being called ‘Butterfly’?” When I asked him if he was in the habit of calling people “Butterfly” he said that he couldn’t recall ever calling anyone that. Stunned, I said, “Daryl, look at this.” and I dramatically unwrapped my package on the counter in front of him. His eyes widened when he saw all the butterfly jewelry. “Stop it! You’re frightening me,” he said. “Me?” I responded, “You’re the one who’s reading my mind!”
The owner of the shop came over and noticed a Sarah Coventry butterfly necklace on the display that she said was just like the one she’d worn as a young girl. The next day she called to tell me that a woman came in and purchased that same necklace. “But wait,” she said, “Daryl has another butterfly incident to tell you about.” Daryl took the phone and told me his story.
At lunchtime he drove home to let out his dog, Tilda. After she did her duty, she abruptly and uncharacteristically turned 180 degrees and raced under a pine tree like she was chasing after a rabbit. Instead, a Monarch butterfly flew out. Tilda then calmly sat back on her haunches to watch the butterfly in flight, as if that’s what result she had intended! Daryl said that this behavior was completely odd for the dear old girl. She has a sweet disposition and is built round like a barrel, so she doesn’t turn quickly and has never been known to rouse a butterfly!
Then as Daryl stood about twenty feet from the pine tree, he watched in disbelief as Tilda’s Monarch winged its way directly towards him. The butterfly landed on his right shoulder and stayed there, he swears, for about forty five seconds!
Butterfly events kept arising for awhile. A man brought a large butterfly specimen to the antique mall. After chatting with him for awhile he said he’d moved here from a small town twelve hundred miles away. It was the same town I was planning on moving TO in a few weeks. He warned me against moving there, but I ignored his warnings and went ahead with my plans to move there. I moved away from that town within two months. Before these butterfly events I never had experienced clustering of synchronistic events. And Daryl had his own experience of other butterfly synchronicities.
My mother and Daryl’s mother both died about a year or so before these occurrences. Both of these women loved butterflies. Could it be as we suspect? Did our mothers get together in spirit to send us a message? Did they synchronize a symphony of butterfly events as a grand “Hello! We love you!”? And did Daryl and I experience a form of thought transference? Did Daryl pick up an aura or imprint of “Butterfly” around me?
And what about Tilda? Was she just uncharacteristically chasing a Monarch or was she inspired by a nudge from our mothers on the other side?
Linda Najjar
Now that moving story has another beautiful note to it. After the butterfly left my shoulder, it fluttered about here and there and landed in a flowerbed on the other side of our house. About the only flowers blooming in that flowerbed were Zinnias and they were my mother’s favorite flower. The butterfly landed there quietly and was flexing its beautiful wings back and forth as they do. I turned and ran to the house to get the camera and when I returned the butterfly was still there. I snapped some pictures and then it lifted off and flew straight up and away. I never saw it again that day. You can view the butterfly picture here and think you’ll agree it was pretty special.
Tilda’s Butterfly
Now, since that butterfly moment there was another butterfly incident with another one of Tilda’s Friends in Utah recently whose name just happens to be “Linda” also. I will call her Linda S. as I didn’t ask her permission to use her name. Linda S. is a past customer who evolved into a dear friend some years ago and we have stayed in touch all this time as there appears to be some sort of connection between us that neither of us understand. When Linda lost her mother recently, the butterfly thing came back big time and it ended up becoming a very important part of Linda’s life for a few months and it all stacked up to be just a bit more than simple coincidences. So it appears to me that there are some mothers somewhere who are having a great time throwing the butterfly themes at us.
Whatever it was, I appreciate it, Mom! Thanks for checking in. And Tilda, thank you for the awesome rainbows……..they were wonderful!!!!