I am not big on sharing my entire life online, but I have posted about my journey with COPD in hopes that I might help someone else.  A big part of my early journey with COPD was just having the will to get up and put one foot in front of the other each day.  I was after all recovering from a pneumothorax and a chest tube that included 14 days in ICU.

I had neighbors and friends who helped me with my journey back to some measure of good health.  Two other individuals that helped me tremendously were animals.  One was a white cat named Snowball and a black lab mix named Albert.  These 2 needed daily care whether I felt like it or not and I credit them with my will to recover.

Albert and Snowball were featured in 2 videos produced by drug companies to show the importance of animals in the lives of individuals and how they complemented the medical side of the recovery story.  I also produced a video in which I thanked the two of them for helping me in my journey to recovery.

Albert crossed over the rainbow bridge Tuesday night.  His passing was very peaceful.  I knew that his time was drawing near because he refused to eat that morning.  He had become almost completely immobile, but his eyes were still bright, and his tail still wagged, so I promised him that as long as he wanted to live, I would try to help him.  He barked and I went out to see if he wanted a drink of water and he did not, so I sat and petted him and told him that if he needed to go that I gave him my permission.  His eyes no longer had that gleam.  He crossed his front feet in front of him, licked his chops, put his head on his front paws, closed his eyes and took one long last breath.

I have thought that I heard him bark a few times today and have started to the door to see what he needed and then stopped because now he needs nothing.He is with his friend Guage who was a Great Dane.