One of the joys of owning your own business is interacting with your customers and getting to know them personally. We are on a first name basis. I am in the pet business and as you can see from my bio at the end of this column I own a retail shop that caters to dogs and cats. My customers are canine, feline and human. Sadly my animal customers are short lived. Their birthdays are multiplied by seven annually. That fact is distressing in that I turn over and lose my clientele far too quickly. It is painful and I mourn each and every one. These past weeks took a heavy toll. I received several calls and emails. We lost Reve, Nipper, Nash, Buffy and a black Lab puppy whose name I did not yet know. Each one of them has a special story.

Let me tell you about Buffy and Mrs. Anderson. In this life we all meet someone who really impacts us. I don't believe anyone has touched my soul as deeply as Mrs. Anderson. She is a blessing and just about as good and kind a person that could ever be. She calls everyone "Honey". She is eighty-one years old, African -American, walks with a cane and lives far from Broad Ripple. Somehow she found her way to my store and continued to make the trek, until now. She is on a fixed income but wanted to buy quality food for Buffy. Buffy was a senior too. She would come into our store with a dollar amount such as $48.75 and want to know how many cans she could buy for $1.38 each. A tricky question since 7% tax had to be figured in. We devised the "Mrs. Anderson Formula" that we kept close to the register. In the fall she would start stock-piling so she wouldn't have to come so often in bad weather. When she ran out in winter we made a special delivery. She learned of my birthday and sent me a card signed from her and Buffy with a smiley face. She sent me a Thank You card as well. She made my days when I would arrive for work and find that she had left phone messages to "all of the nice people at City Dogs Grocery" wishing "God's blessing for you and your families with his grace, peace and mercy in Christ Jesus" at Easter and again at Thanksgiving. She sent me a photo of what Buffy would have looked like when she was a puppy and she sent me an inspirational magnet for my fridge. I have kept every card, photo, magnet and one phone message. When I am having a down day I resort to her inspiration. So when I was told that Mrs. Anderson called to tell us that Buffy was missing and wondering if she could return the cans she had left, my heart sunk as it did for everyone of us at the store. Buffy was a yellow lab and had been a faithful and protective companion for her. Now she would be lonely and sad. It took me two weeks to call her because I just couldn't bear it. Yesterday I made the call. I told her I missed her and she said "I miss you too, Honey. I was just sitting here thinking of you." She said she had sent her daughter in to return the cans because I was such a nice lady that she might start bawling if she came. Little did she know that it was I who was silently bawling at the other end of the phone while she told how Buffy had slipped out the back door because she got distracted when she opened the door and saw lots of ants that she needed to rid. The yard was not fenced and she neglected this time to put Buffy's collar or leash on. She told me that she had raised her from a pup and now she was fifteen. She had called Animal Control and they wanted her to come down with pictures but she said she was too old to go. Her family helped but she had not been found and it was now six weeks. She said it was so hard and she asked God every day to give her strength. She has an amazing faith. Each and everyone of us at the store has been touched by her. We would do anything for her. If I had known, I would have closed the store to take her to Animal Control. She is just so good to the people she touches. It makes me reflect that we should all be so kind to others. We should go back to old ways and send cards and leave messages. Lately I have been impacted by negative actions. I have met the opposites of Mrs. Anderson. I would like to scoop her up and send her in their direction. It makes me think how great the world would be if we could just get along and be nicer. She is one in a million, worth a million. She tells me she will remember my birthday. Pets make you smile and sometimes they make you cry.