A Beautiful Surprise From A Friend; Auction Update, ~and~ Epi-Tip #26

"One person caring about another represents life's greatest value." ~Anonymous

In the middle of this hectic month of November being Epilepsy Awareness Month, where Gibson and I work hard to spread the word about Canine Epilepsy Awareness through our #LiveGibStrong campaign, I received a special surprise. As many of my readers know,  I've been posting a daily Epi-Tip for the 30 days of November, wrapping up my new book about Canine Epilepsy, EPIc Dog Tales: Heartfelt Stories About Dogs Living & Loving Life With Canine Epilepsy, and sharing valuable information and resources via articles, social media posts, broadcasts on my "The Sibe Vibe" Dog Works Radio show, and even holding our first online benefit auction. In the middle of all this, I'm rehabbing Gibson from yet another weak hind end issue as a result of his Epi medications. Through all this, I have do admit that I feel a bit guilty that I don't have enough time to visit fellow bloggers and spend some time with friends. But, thankfully, most of my friends, readers, and folks who know me know how important November and Epilepsy Awareness is to me and my inspiration, Gibson. So, in the middle of all the deadlines and late hours, a package arrives for me from a dear friend and fellow Husky mom who writes the Holly and the Huskies blog. She has been a fellow 5-Siber and we "met" because of our Huskies. We fondly refer to our Huskies as "cousins!" When I saw her return address label, I smiled and placed the package on my desk for a few days as a reward, if you will. (I do the same with Christmas packages that arrive early. I save them until Christmas morning!) Oh, yes, I surely was eager to know what was inside...but, I kept it as an inspiration...a reward...that I could open when I finished one of my Epilepsy projects. Tonight, I did complete a project. And I opened the box. Tears filled my eyes as I unwrapped the bubble wrap to reveal the beautiful purple paw ornament above. What a special and thoughtful gift! Purple for Epilepsy Awareness, and a paw for my love of dogs. Also inside, was a lovely note thanking me for our friendship and for the Canine Epilepsy advocate work I do for all our amazing Epi-dogs. See, Holly is also an Epi-dog Mom - to not one, but two Huskies with Canine Epilepsy; beautiful Boo and her sister, Nala, who you will meet below. 

The beautiful purple paw ornament is so special to me, 

and on the eve of Thanksgiving, I thought it appropriate to say: 

Holly, thank you so very much for your friendship and support. This means the world to me! 

Meet the beautiful Boo & Nala Stoddard, today's Epi All Stars:

"Boo" 

~And~

"Nala"

Why not pop over to Holly and the Huskies blog and say "woo" to Boo and Nala. And be sure to tell them their "cousins", the FiveSibes sent you!

 

UPDATE! 

 Lots of FiveSibes #LiveGibStrong K-9 Epilepsy Awareness online benefit auction items have been packaged up (see the mountain of boxes above?!) and shipped out already! More are going out on Friday! Gibson checked everything twice, and thanks everyone who donated, placed bids, and shared our info, with a big Husky "Thank woooo!" When you get your item, if you could just go over to  

AFA - Auctions For Animals page and comment under your item(s) so we know, that would be great! Once all payments are in and tallies are done, we'll announce the total donations! Wooo! We're very excited!