Animal friend tales

​29 July 2020 – I wrote on Facebook
Let me tell you about our goldfish which my sister overseas has just renamed NGU!
 
So, last night I go to rest at the end of a long day... glance over at the little fish tank and my beautiful goldfish is flapping helplessly on its back... dying! Oh, my word... I felt so bad. For about two weeks, I've been meaning to change the tank water, but been so busy, I put my work first!  So, all I could think was that the water had become too strong due to evaporation and just filling the tank instead of changing the water, and that's why it was dying... (the tank looked sparkling clean otherwise).
 
So, I jumped up and immediately cleaned the whole tank. I felt so bad for the poor fish... it didn't deserve to die because I had neglected to care for its home in time. By the time we'd finished cleaning, it was lying upside down on the bottom of the tank... it really looked like it was on its way out.  Its tummy was really bloated and I felt desperate to help it... I was too short to reach in, so asked my son to gently massage its tummy... (someone is laughing right now I'm sure!) 🤣... but I'm a nurse at heart, so when a human's tummy is sore and bloated, if it's massaged, it helps to move stuff around and could help... so why not a fish too!!!
 
Anyway, by the time we went to sleep, it was still upside down and looked dead. I prayed so hard for it to receive a miracle... surely God's little creatures can be saved by miracles also 🙏 🥰 🐟 💖
 
When we woke this morning, it was alive and swimming around as if nothing happened!
 
NGU = NEVER GIVE UP! 💖 Brave little goldfish!
 
I am grateful for miracles... even little fishy ones 💖
 
Goodnight beautiful world... Love to you all and all creatures great and small 💖
 
17 August 2020 ~ Follow up on NGU
The sad news is, that NGU, our beautiful goldfish, was found dead in the tank this morning. After our life-saving attempts and prayers brought about his little fishy-miracle on the 29th July... we were blessed with another 19 days to enjoy his lovely presence. I guess maybe, old age got to him at last. I'd like to believe that God saw how hard we tried to save him on the 29th July and gave us extra time with him as a result. We are very grateful for the joy and blessing our little fat-fishy NGU was to us... "Until will see you on the other side one day NGU" 💖
 
15 August 2020
Today was my Greek Name Day… and I mentioned to someone on Facebook how my Greek mom was the only person who ever consistently called me by my own true name and I missed her.  He mentioned that she was still watching over me… and I responded “I know, because she always finds ways to let me know she’s around, especially when I really need to feel her presence”… (either doves or  butterflies)… well, next thing, I’m sitting in my room and I hear a dove calling right outside my window… not something I’ve heard on this side of the house in a long time.  I creep up quietly to the window and very carefully open the curtain… and there in my bay leaf tree pot, is lying a baby dove, flapping its wings for its mother, and on the wall, the mother dove cooing lovingly to the baby.  I learned through my Greek stepmother, to use bay leaves in my cooking, especially in roasts, so to me, this was definitely a sign from her, to wish me well on my Greek Name Day this year.  She must know that I’ve been going through a particularly difficult death-loss struggle, and wanted me to feel her nurturing love again.  The little dove and its mother came for three days… I made sure to feed them each time.  Their presence was so beautiful to me.
 
Lizards
Not only wild birds, but I also still have a yard full of pet lizards which I love!  I hard-boil eggs and chop them up small and around 10am each day I go out and sprinkle the eggs for the lizards to eat, and the birds also come to enjoy them.  Usually one boiled egg is enough for two days.
 
Daddy longlegs
In one corner of our bathroom, lives a daddy longlegs spider.   He is so sweet.  My helper who comes once a week, knows that she must not disturb it… I told her, I don’t have a lot of friends, so the spider is my friend… she laughed!  I have to go out every day to find ants to feed it, otherwise it would starve this winter, because with the windows shut, etc. to keep the house warm, no goggas are coming indoors.
 
27 Aug 20 (in a few days’ time)
On the 27th, it will be, my precious sausage-dog best friend, Mrs. Poppy Peanut’s “Love Day”… she died this time last year… still breaks my heart to think about her.  Strangely, blue butterflies which have become symbolic to me of her visiting spirit (one visited us the day after she died), were popping up all week on Facebook… I think she was trying to comfort me also.  I saved this one to share.

The Prayer of St. Francis
 
Make me a channel of your peace.
Where there is hatred let me bring your love;
Where there is injury, your pardon, Lord;
And where there’s doubt, true faith in you:
 
Oh, Master, grant that I may never seek
So much to be consoled as to console;
To be understood as to understand;
To be loved, as to love with all my soul.
 
Make me a channel of your peace.
Where there’s despair in life, let me bring hope;
Where there is darkness, only light;
And where there’s sadness, ever joy:
 
Make me a channel of your peace.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
In giving of ourselves that we receive,
And in dying that we’re born to eternal life.
​
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2svZhZT6Pro  

This version of the song made me cry… it touched my soul so deeply.  I have to find a way to stop failing my fellow man and myself.

 Thank you for sharing.
 
~ Panayiota