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Azrael's Friends With Special Needs

Azrael was really lucky to be extremely healthy for 15 years, but then she was diagnosed with Chronic Renal Failure and our daily routine changed. Now, our brave little girl has to get daily treatments of fluids and medicines to continue to feel good. Being such a generous and thoughtful girl, she wanted us to help recognize others who, like her, are living a full life but in order to do so have special requirements. A model example of this would be Azrael's new friend Trip. Trip was born with severe neurological problems which keep him from being able to move around on his own. Many people might have just assumed that it wouldn't be possible for him to live a happy life, but he was fortunate enough to hook up with an extraordinary human, Dr. Jennifer Brinson (who is Azrael's vet). Trip has trained Jennifer to meet all of his special needs and he, in turn, gives her extra-special love. Trip, is thus the first recipient of Azrael's new award:

Individuals who have special medical needs should apply for this award (or have someone do it for them) by sending us your name and a short bio including a description of your medical condition. Make sure to let us know that you want to be one of Azrael's special friends. If you have one, send a photo to be included and a URL to link to if you have a homepage. She would like to have a gallery of her special friends to serve as an example to the world of how life goes on, even under difficult circumstances!

Meet the first new member of Azrael's Special Friends
Miss Suzanna!

Meet our second club member
Dickens!

Leo!

Nadia and Kohl!

Larry's fur-babies!

Taj and Jazzmine

Ditto

Waffle

Our dear friend Boomer, wasn't sure his condition was serious enough to be a member of my club since all he needs is a special prescription diet. Well, we think he's pretty special for educating everybody about serious health conditions like FUS and therefore want to make him at least an honorary member of my club. You can read more about Boomer by checking out what he says about pet adoption at Phoebe's Friends site or click on his photo above to go to his home page.

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Azrael had a harrowing experience. It was on Friday a week before Azrael's 16th birthday (which was June 17, 1999) and out of the blue she needed to be rushed to the kitty emergency room because she couldn't see and was acting very strange. She could barely stand up but when she did she circled to the left. She was very aggitated but relatively limp and lifeless. We were scared to death! [I can't tell you how much the support I got from friends and family as well as from kind-hearted people on various net discussion boards helped! People all around the world were praying for her and for us and it made all the difference!] By Monday, after a battery of tests and being seen by the opthomologist as well as a neurologist, Dr. Brinson concluded that Azrael had likely had a "stroke" (not like humans have....it's called a cerebral vascular accident) and we had to wait and see if she'd improve or not. She was stronger and seemed to be adjusting to the blindness fairly well. We were just so relieved that she was acting more and more herself (what's a little blindness if she's otherwise ok?). Well, then a miracle happened! By the next Friday when she had a follow-up, she was back to normal! Now, a week later, she's not only feeling herself, she's even been more playful than usual. She played games with me that she hasn't played in years!

Well, to commemorate this harrowing experience and the miraculous recovery, what do we do???? Well, we make another award, of course! Here it is, the Little Trooper Award:

This award is for individuals who've gone through a hard time but have retained a positive attitude and fought to keep on in spite of the pain or difficulty. If you'd like to apply for this award, just send us your story and put "little trooper" in the subject header. [Note: worthy individuals who are no longer with us are also eligible for nomination.]