Thursday, I had another nice day of watching Bert. He didn’t do the howling thing again like on Tuesday when his owner left, but just cried a little. He did his sniffing and then was back into the moment as dogs do.

I had a friend come for a visit that I hadn’t seen for a while and I told her to come for lunch. I had stuff here to just heat up, so I didn’t think it would be all that hard. She brought her mom which was nice and her puppy. The puppy (Tessa) was rather uptight with new environments and would bark at me and at Bert. She would jump(startled) at absolutely everything. I told my friend that she needs the exposure, so we just worked around it and she did finally settle some and even licked my fingers. Bert didn’t approach her since she seemed to not want him to, so he was very accommodating. He is a good boy. I encourage socializing of the animals and given time and working with the animals, it is a very good thing for everyone. Bert was a good host as well.

Tessa looked a lot like Bert except for the white boots. Bert has white boots on his feet. Tessa is completely black, but they looked similar in breed. She is also part Border Collie like Bert, but has German Shepherd as well. I wonder if that is what I see in Bert. Maybe he is part German Sheppard. A mystery.

I did find that maybe doing lunch, although it was easy, may have been more than I should have done. I was really feeling it. I love to see my friends, but I am noticing everything is quite the chore and my body feels it. Even though we were having a lovely visit, I finally had to say that it was time for me to go rest. They were good about it, and were on their way. I did very much enjoy the visit and even meeting my friend’s mom. I have to do things in tiny chunks, and then rest. The diversion is wonderful for my mental well being.

Pete and I went to our support groups in the evening and it was nice to see everyone. I am really getting to love these people. There was one new person this week too. Our group is really growing. We really do encourage one another and we can share things and even recommend advise to others who are just starting on their journeys. I am actually blown away at how big it is to have the support of others going through what I am going through. We can talk about anything that is a concern. It just helps to talk about it. Pete says that he finds his support group is very valuable to him too.