Livestrong Day

October 2, 2012 is Livestrong Day, a day when pet bloggers join to show support for those fighting cancer, and to honor those we have lost to cancer.

Amos, Grampa Booga, and Grandma Gayle
In memory of Grandma Gayle
July 28, 1932 - December 20, 2002

"Her spirit endures in all that is good" 

- Grandma Gayle's grave marker

Ten years ago, my Grandma Gayle died.  I never knew her, but mom says I would have loved her, and Grandma would have loved me.  Mom says I have a lot of Grandma in me, because I make mom and dad so happy, and because I'm always making people smile.

I think Grandma and I would have been great friends.  Like me, she loved the beach and the river, and she loved being outdoors.  She also LOVED labs.  She always gave Christmas presents to my black lab brother Jake, because she understood that Jake was my parents' furry, four-legged child.

Mom says Grandma made the best crab cakes ever.  She would catch the crabs in her crab pot off the dock, steam them on the deck so they wouldn't make the house smelly, then spend hours picking them.  Mom says now you have to go all the way to Tangier Island to find the only crab cakes that even come close to Grandma's.

Grandma was always doing nice things for others.  She remembered everyone's birthdays.  She baked cookies for the UPS man at Christmas.  She gave strangers rides to their boats, so they wouldn't have to walk carrying groceries all the way from the market to the town dock. 

We like to think that Grandma and Jake are playing on a beach together now, with all of the family's previous labs and boxers.  Amos, who was Booga's beagle when Grandma & Booga got married (see photo above), is in the middle of the melee, howling with joy.

This post is dedicated to Grandma Gayle 

and my black lab brother Jake.  Cancer took them both.