Meeting Anne and her dog, Farley, was miraculous, like finding a needle in a haystack!

I have two published miracle books: “Expect Miracles” and “A Christmas Filled With Miracles” and live a life filled with miracles.

Every morning, I ask “...to be a vehicle for miracles to happen through me to others”.  And, I am always surprised when they happen -- to me!

My deceased cat, Nymbus, loved being half of our teaching team.

He swam for Animal Planet’s MUST LOVE CATS and flew to New York with a great cat-it-tude teaching pet-water safety on Anderson Cooper’s show.

He displayed chara-cat-eristics on what happens when you dearly love your pet.  He enjoyed making seniors at Memory Care smile, and his favorite “sport” was riding in “his” bicycle basket. He took pride in his life mission, bringing joy to others, and apparently he is still my partner, guiding me to pet miracles from the other side.

You can’t plan a miracle, but in Vancouver, BC, population 3,000,000, what are the odds of walking right to one?

During my Canadian holiday, I read a newspaper article on Wendy Alexander, and her dog, Chili, who had qualified to represent Canada in the World Agility Championships in Europe - for the third time! Chili must be quite the dog! I kept the article to help with the ardent task of locating them for a future Pet Tips 'n' Tales article.

Five days later, while walking at West Vancouver’s “Bark Park”, I boldly introduced myself to Anne and asked her “Why?” she had three dogs.

“Dogs keep you young,” responded Anne.  “My daughter is in Italy with her dog competing, so I am baby sitting her other two dogs."

I gasped! I realized the im-paws-ible odds of stumbling onto Wendy’s mother!  A miracle? YES!

Here is Anne’s story and next week, the Canadian Champion ‘Chili in Italy’ article.

“Growing up, I had dogs and cats,” said Anne. “So, when my four children were little, we had a “family” dog and each child had “their” own cat, who they slept with. Everyone left their windows open at night for the cats to come and go.  

One night, my son heard the cats making a racket. Upon investigation, he was startled to see a raccoon and cat “sharing” the kibble.  The raccoon came for years, he never harmed a cat and always joined them for dinner.  I had to warn my visiting mother not to be alarmed if she woke up with a raccoon in her bedroom!

Our daughter, Wendy, spent most of her play time on her knees being a dog!  She lived and breathed dogs and not much has changed over the last few decades. When Wendy married she had two dogs, who became "agility"dogs.

Wendy and her champion dogs have competed extensively in British Columbia and Canadian competitions.  Last year they competed on two Canadian teams in Italy and the Netherlands.

This was the third year that Wendy and Chili qualified for the Canadian team.  But shortly after, Wendy tore a knee ligament. She was concerned about being able to travel and participate in the intensive competitions.  With physical therapy and a metal knee brace, she hopes it is the winning combination to carry her through the riggers of travel and competition.

After the tournament, Wendy flies onto Svent Istvan, Budapest to visit her daughter, Krystin. Krystin is attending the second oldest veterinarian school in the world. Yes, love and devotion to animals is genetic in our family!  I imagine that my great-grandchildren won’t be playing with dolls and trucks, but instead they will be outside agility training their pups! And - carrying on the family tradition of bringing home strays!

Christmas at my house is quite the “family” reunion with my four children, their spouses, four grandchildren, and nine dogs! The dogs are all big; a Malamute, three Border Collies, an Australian Shepherd, an Aussie-Border Collie cross, a Miniature Pincer, a Dogo Argentino, and a Staffordshire-Boxer cross.

I currently have more grand dogs than grandchildren and I don’t expect that to change soon - unless a few more dogs show up!

The well-trained canine-cousins are as happy to see each other, and the turkey dinner, as my family.”

After dinner, the humans have to maneuver around a furry-agility course of nine turkey fed sleeping dogs!

“Have you noticed how spooky-smart dogs are?” asked Anne. 

“Once Farley, my Australian/Border cross, and I were headed out when I remembered it was trash day. I muttered that I had to get the trash. Farley immediately turned from the front door and walked over to the trash.

Farley has a grasp on the English language and understands more than we give pets credit for. Don’t worry about the CIA’s listening devices, our dogs are tuning into our conversations!  I wish I understood dog-bark-talk half as well!

I recently read of a 65-year-old lady, who gave birth to quadruplets! Purrs-onally I would rather have a dog to walk with to keep me healthy, cuddle with, and sleep with all night long!”

Removing pet from FUR-niture and clothes:
- Rub a wet rubber glove over it. The static electricity also helps remove the fur.
- Fold packing tape upside down on your hand to work its magic.

Mary Ellen's Silver Persians swam their way into readers and viewer's hearts! They have appeared in International magazines and newspapers around the world. (France, England, Canada, China, Germany, USA, etc.)

Also, several National and International TV shows featured the swimming felines teaching pet-water-safety. And their furry faces appeared on a line of shirts.