In a way? I wish all of you could be me, so that you could be on the receiving end of so much support. This experience with Bentley has been terrible, but it’s also been wonderful. It’s brought us closer, certainly. Bentley has developed a whole new level of trust and he has an almost human gratitude. Then, reading all your cards, letters and emails really helped me get through this. Not only did so many of you offer practical, “been there, done that” advice, but you would not even believe how many people offered to actually help me, physically. As in, “I’ll come out there and walk him, babysit, so you can have a break.” Keep in mind, these are complete strangers, people who know me only through my books. I am just blown away by the generosity, compassion and grace of my fans. And I will do my best to express my gratitude.
Bentley is doing beautifully. We’re living in the basement of our home because it’s carpeted, has direct access to the outdoors and has a bathroom. It’s just the safest, easiest place. We’ve been down here since before Christmas, sleeping on an air mattress. So yeah, that’s a blast. But it’s really been good because Bentley is walking, he’s able to stand for long periods. To traverse the snow he hops like some kind of creature monkey bunny thing. He plays tug-of-war with the cow. Cow, of course, is absolutely thrilled by Bentley’s paralysis. He is just gleeful. Cow wins EVERYTHING, ALL THE TIME. So we have to watch him to make sure he doesn’t get too pushy.
We have a crib down here, an actual human baby crib. And this was where Bentley slept, early in his recovery. Now he’s back in “bed” with us, but when we leave for a few minutes, we plop them both in the crib and it’s really funny because they love it. Cow, especially, seems to love being in the crib. I think because it’s elevated, it makes him taller than most everything in the room. He can sort of stand there behind the bars and survey his territory.
I’ll try to write a more complete update as soon as I can. But I couldn’t let another day pass without thanking you and letting you know that Bentley is running around like a wino, toppling over and then getting right back on and plowing on.
