October 11, 2001
An Unexpected Event

This has been an extremely difficult week for us as we face the fact that James' time with us may be running out. The idea is not new to us, you just hope that it's still a long way off. This week it doesn't seem like being a long way off. On the medical front, it was decided to restrart chemo, and see what happens. James has been up and about, pretty well pain free, and enjoying life quite nicely in his inimitable way, despite his limited energy. He has been grappling with a loose tooth for days, and yesterday the project came to fulfilment. On our return from choir practice last night he proudly bore a platter on which the tooth was being displayed. Having made the point, he went off to his bedroom to make the appropriate arrangements for a visit from the tooth fairy. Pam and I exchanged meaningful glances, hoping that we wouldn't have to cook up yet again one of those stories about the tooth fairy being too busy in Africa, or we wrapped it up in the wrong kind of paper, or whatever.

Finding ourselves in a situation where one feels that life can't get much worse, and therfore one more complication will make no difference, Pam and I picked up the threads of a long standing family debate, reveiwed our parental postition, and decided that it was time to concede. We placed a call to our friend Mary the vet and said "Have you got a dog, housetrained, non -allergenic, doesn't bark, and loves children?" Mary and her team got to work, and a couple of hours later we got a call. "We've found a twelve week old minature poodle, white, male, in Arthur, Ontario." Where's that? About three hours a way, apparently. I phoned the place, and the helpful owner said "I've got someone going your way later tonight. Do you want him?"

So, in typical "Why wait?" Birrell fashion, late last night the cutest little puppy arrived (yes, I know, they are all cute at that age). It has been the single most asked for wish of all our children, so you can imagine their complete and utter delight. "I've always been wishing to get a dog!" said James. Then he phoned Uncle Jamie in Vancouver. "Hi this is James. We just got a dog!" I guess Uncle Jamie then said "I thought your parents didn't want a dog." because the next thing James said was "Actually, they really did want a pet!" Rebecca discovered that the puppy gives the best snuggles, licks and kisses imaginable, and then went off to make dog toys out of old socks. Ben's comment to Pam and me: "You two always wanted another baby. And here it is!" Where did he get that idea from? And for the first time in ages Pam looked really happy. It seems that Bigsby, or Pippin, or whatever his name is going to be, is the distraction we needed. And we have the satisfaction of knowing we won't have to deal later with the thought "James always wanted to have a dog." Perhaps he will help us all through the difficult times ahead.

I forgot to mention the strangest thing: James eventually went off to bed, only to come tearing back to say that the tooth fairy had already been! "She musta snuck in while we were playing with the puppy!". Odd.
Syd

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