LAUGH LOVE LIVE Newsletter

Mary and her husband Jim had a dog named 'Lucky'. Whenever Mary and Jim had company come for a weekend visit they would warn their friends to not leave their luggage open because Lucky would help himself to whatever struck his fancy. Inevitably, someone would forget and something would come up missing.

Mary or Jim would go to Lucky's toy box in the basement and there the treasure would be, amid all of Lucky's other favorite toys, Lucky always stashed his finds in his toy box and he was very particular that his toys stay in the box.

It happened that Mary found out she had breast cancer. Something told her she was going to die of this disease. She scheduled the double mastectomy immediately. The night before she was to go to the hospital she cuddled with Lucky.

The surgery was harder on Mary than her doctors had anticipated. Mary was hospitalized for over two weeks. Jim took Lucky for his evening walk faithfully, but the sad dog just drooped, whining and miserable.

Finally the day came for Mary to come home. Mary was so exhausted she couldn't even make it up the steps to her bedroom. Jim made his wife comfortable on the couch and left her to nap.

Lucky stood watching Mary but he didn't come to her when she called. It made Mary sad but sleep soon overcame her and she dozed.

When Mary awoke she couldn't understand what was wrong. She couldn't move her head and her body felt heavy and hot. But panic soon gave way to LAUGHter when Mary realized the problem. She was covered, literally blanketed, with every treasure Lucky owned! While she had slept, the happy dog had made trip after trip to the basement bringing his beloved Mary all of his favorite things.

He had covered her with his love.

Mary forgot about dying. Instead she and Lucky began living again, walking further and further together every day.

It's been 12 years now and Mary is still cancer-free. Lucky still steals treasures and stashes them in his toy box but Mary remains his greatest treasure.