Dear Readers: I met Alicia when Frank adopted her and she was very blind and Frank very devoted. She was very loving and I had some quality time with her. Rest in Peace.Dogs have given us their absolute all. We are the center of their universe. We are the focus of their love and faith and trust. They serve us in return for scraps. It is without a doubt the best deal man has ever made. ~Roger Caras
So much love,
Frank
So much love,
Frank
This is the same Frank that gave me "stuff" for 47 East 3rd Street when they were trying to raise money for their lawyers fee with a table outside their home were they were finally evicted and this is the same Frank who gave me clothes for a homeless man that would constant be in a terrible state and need fresh clothes.
His devotion to Alicia, a late in life adopted handicap dog was very moving.
Frank wrote this and sent me this quote.....
Dear Friends:
My sweet little Aquarian, Alicia Sophia, a blind Italian Greyhound rescue from the internet, passed this morning at an emergency care veterinary hospital. Inspired by my friend Mark's two beautiful Iggys, I searched Google one evening to see if there was an abandoned Iggy in need of a loving home. The search brought me to The Italian Greyhound Rescue Network and there was a picture of this blind Iggy in a foster home. I instantly knew we were meant to be family. She arrived two weeks later from New Jersey, a special needs adoption. She had been abandoned in Virginia Beach, VA two years before, left at a vet's office. She went into the foster care loop for two years. She was 7 years old then and had an enlarged heart, failing teeth, pulmonary edema, and mitral valve prolapse.
Because she was blind with cataracts, my two recently rescued Maine Coon Tabby sisters accepted her immediately into the family as no threat to them, just as they had been accepted a few months earlier by Sally Ann, my 9 year old red-eared slider turtle, who had been abandoned in the building garden when only a month old.
Alicia had been with me for only 18 months when, in March, her health began to decline with a chronic cough. Two of my clients had alerted me to the fact that they knew that cough to be an enlarged heart pressing on her esophagus. She was diagnosed as such and began 4 medications twice per day. She was stable until the day after Father's Day which was a delightful day of gratitude for all being together. I had some really wonderful play time with each of them and remember thinking how wonderfully loving and playful Alicia was on Sunday. Monday morning I heard her yelp and found her in a spastic fit that lasted several minutes. As I rushed her to the emergency care hospital, she had another seizure in my arms, only this time she was crying out for me to help her. A plan was developed and she went into ICU immediately.
At 7 pm last night, I was allowed to visit her for ten minutes and she looked like an angel resting peacefully in her cage all hooked up to something or other. I spent that time telling her how amazed I was that she survived the heart attack and how special she is to me. I held her and kissed her sweetly on her nose, knowing how she liked that. She was to be released on Wednesday.
This morning she had two additional seizures in ICU and I received the call that she was not doing well. At 10 am I received a second call that she had not improved and what decision had I made? I spent the last few minutes with her as she received her injections telling her all the things a Dad tells his beloved kid knowing she would soon be gone. I had never done this before. I have never had the courage to hold a pet as it was being given a final injection but Rudy, my last cat, died at home with me and I thought I would not survive it, it was so very, very painful. This prepared me for Alicia's death today and am so thankful to Rudy for teaching me that I was strong enough to say goodbye and live through it.
Alicia could not see me this morning but she felt me and heard me and I could feel it in her heartbeat every time I told her I love her. I kept my hand on her chest until it stopped beating and only then did I break into great weeping and deep sorrow. She was a very gentle and loving creature, she was very dear to me.
“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.” - Helen Keller
May your life be filled with greater health and peace, joy and understanding.
With gratitude,
Frank
"Love people, feed people, serve people, remember God." - Maharaj ji
My sweet little Aquarian, Alicia Sophia, a blind Italian Greyhound rescue from the internet, passed this morning at an emergency care veterinary hospital. Inspired by my friend Mark's two beautiful Iggys, I searched Google one evening to see if there was an abandoned Iggy in need of a loving home. The search brought me to The Italian Greyhound Rescue Network and there was a picture of this blind Iggy in a foster home. I instantly knew we were meant to be family. She arrived two weeks later from New Jersey, a special needs adoption. She had been abandoned in Virginia Beach, VA two years before, left at a vet's office. She went into the foster care loop for two years. She was 7 years old then and had an enlarged heart, failing teeth, pulmonary edema, and mitral valve prolapse.
Because she was blind with cataracts, my two recently rescued Maine Coon Tabby sisters accepted her immediately into the family as no threat to them, just as they had been accepted a few months earlier by Sally Ann, my 9 year old red-eared slider turtle, who had been abandoned in the building garden when only a month old.
Alicia had been with me for only 18 months when, in March, her health began to decline with a chronic cough. Two of my clients had alerted me to the fact that they knew that cough to be an enlarged heart pressing on her esophagus. She was diagnosed as such and began 4 medications twice per day. She was stable until the day after Father's Day which was a delightful day of gratitude for all being together. I had some really wonderful play time with each of them and remember thinking how wonderfully loving and playful Alicia was on Sunday. Monday morning I heard her yelp and found her in a spastic fit that lasted several minutes. As I rushed her to the emergency care hospital, she had another seizure in my arms, only this time she was crying out for me to help her. A plan was developed and she went into ICU immediately.
At 7 pm last night, I was allowed to visit her for ten minutes and she looked like an angel resting peacefully in her cage all hooked up to something or other. I spent that time telling her how amazed I was that she survived the heart attack and how special she is to me. I held her and kissed her sweetly on her nose, knowing how she liked that. She was to be released on Wednesday.
This morning she had two additional seizures in ICU and I received the call that she was not doing well. At 10 am I received a second call that she had not improved and what decision had I made? I spent the last few minutes with her as she received her injections telling her all the things a Dad tells his beloved kid knowing she would soon be gone. I had never done this before. I have never had the courage to hold a pet as it was being given a final injection but Rudy, my last cat, died at home with me and I thought I would not survive it, it was so very, very painful. This prepared me for Alicia's death today and am so thankful to Rudy for teaching me that I was strong enough to say goodbye and live through it.
Alicia could not see me this morning but she felt me and heard me and I could feel it in her heartbeat every time I told her I love her. I kept my hand on her chest until it stopped beating and only then did I break into great weeping and deep sorrow. She was a very gentle and loving creature, she was very dear to me.
“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.” - Helen Keller
May your life be filled with greater health and peace, joy and understanding.
With gratitude,
Frank
"Love people, feed people, serve people, remember God." - Maharaj ji
