Our Buddy, Buster
For many years, Buster our Boxer friend was a trusted confidante for children in our FaCT program
A Letter from Dori and Michael, volunteers who shared Buster with us for several years:
Dear Friends at Angel Foundation and Facing Cancer Together,
There is no good way to deliver this news. Yesterday, our earth angel Buster became a heavenly angel. He passed in a peaceful way, while we told him over and over again, how much we loved him.
I wanted to thank you for your support of Buster as a Therapy Dog. I appreciate you giving him the opportunity to shine; while encouraging him to be his “Buster self". You helped him to thrive. He loved working along side all of you.
It’s been said that life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the number of moments that take your breath away. If that’s true, than I feel like I just lived a lifetime in the nearly 8 years I had with Buster.
The children’s love and friendship for Buster was so pure; so honest. Watching the interaction between Buster and the children humbled me, and inspired me. In Buster’s last event at the Monday Support series, he walked away with a stack of love notes and drawings. The children’s notes and drawings were simple and pure, just like Buster’s heart. They read - “Buster is the world;” or “Who loves Buster? I love Buster!”
Buster loved – with no questions asked. Buster listened – with no judgment. He did not advise – he wagged his tail, not his tongue. The children gave Buster the purest of friendship right back to him. One boy would even hold his water dish up in his hands because: “Buster deserved better than to drink his water from a dish on the floor….I want to help Buster because he is a friend to me, and I want to be a friend to him too.”
Love. Listening. Loyalty. The relationship Buster and the children at FaCT taught me some of life’s most important lessons. I aim to live those lessons in my heart. In that way, Buster lives on forever. If it weren’t for Buster, I would not have met all of you, been inspired by your work…or aspire to be more like the children and Buster.
Thank you – to all of you – for those moments you took my breath away.
“Tail-waggingly yours,”
Dori