Coping with Cancer Through the Healing Power of Pets and Humor

Deb Krier: [00:00:00] Hey there, lifter Uppers. I'm Deb Kreer, the co-host of Cancer and Comedy, where our mission is to heal cancer impacted people through hope and humor, something we like to call turning the grim into a grin. Well, today on cancer and comedy, we're going to talk about the power of pets, especially dogs in helping cancer-impacted people, cope with hope.

So here is the host of Cancer and Comedy, Dr. Brad Miller.

Dr. Brad Miller.: Hey, Deb, always a pleasure, privilege to be with you and our lifter uppers, the people who have said that, uh, cancer are not gonna get the best of us. We're going to live life to the fullest. To whatever that means to the end of our life and just have a like great joy in life and to really focus on the joy, focus on the positive, focus on what we can do and not what we can't do.

Mm-hmm. And a part of that whole process then is to help us to find strategies and means to cope with hope and humor. And we're gonna talk about today, one of the things we're gonna talk about today here is. Just pets in your own [00:01:00] experience with your pets. I know. Mm-hmm. Pets are a huge part of your life, especially dogs.

And we'll get into that in details. We really want our audience to know that we're here for you. We're here to develop a community of people who are like-minded, who are just saying that, uh, cancer's not gonna get the best of us. We're gonna live our life to fullest. And we'd like to call it turning the grim into turn the grim of cancer into the grin of a fulfilled life.

And we hope people will get connected to our community. By just simply going over to our website, cancer and comedy.com/follow. Hey Deb. Uh, how about a couple of dad jokes to get us rocking and rolling here today?

Deb Krier: You know, I live all week just in anticipation. Oh, I know. I

Dr. Brad Miller.: can just tell just the excitement is builds all week.

It just, you know, just, here we go. Yeah. Mm-hmm. So why, why did the, uh, cowboy give the pony. A cough drop. I don't know. Uh, he was a little horse.

Deb Krier: Yeah, I could see that one coming.

Dr. Brad Miller.: There'll be a, there's a farm theme today. Why? Why did the mama cow [00:02:00] say to the sleepy baby cow?

Deb Krier: I don't know.

Dr. Brad Miller.: It's pasture. Bedtime.

Deb Krier: Oh, cute, cute, cute. Well, following our conversation today, you definitely wanna stick around because we have another one of Dr. Brad's bad jokes of the day. But then of course, we turn very serious for the very important faith it or break it segment. Well, as mentioned, we would love for you to be part of our cancer and comedy community, where together we crush cancer with a message of how to cope with hope and humor.

Please follow cancer and comedy@cancerandcomedy.com/follow.

Dr. Brad Miller.: Well, Deb, today we're gonna have a, a conversation kind of a personal way because we're gonna talk about personal lives, you and I a little bit, and our listeners get to learn a lot about us and know that I have a couple granddaughters I like to hang out with.

One of my granddaughters had a. Her eighth birthday party over the week. Oh the weekend. And we had a great time hanging out with her Seder birthday and lots of toys and fun stuff [00:03:00] and things that we, we did singing songs and being silly and having a lot of fun. And my granddaughters and my daughter and my three kids are all part of the joy in my life.

And that was part of the thing we had going on. But a part of the joy in your life is. Pets, especially dogs. Right. And it really is not just having a pet, only you are a really, really big time dog person in that you have several dogs and other pets and you, you know, travel around the country as a, as a part of your life

Deb Krier: mm-hmm.

Dr. Brad Miller.: Is to sh is showing dogs. Right. And so I wanna get into that a little bit, but there's a particular, particular thing we're talking about here today is part of that. Process is you, if you have a lot of dogs and a lot of pets, sometimes we lose one. And you had the heartbreak of losing a pet, uh, just, uh, uh, not long ago.

Right? So I'm just gonna let you just kind of just share for a minute about what you've experienced the last week or two with, uh, okay. With, with your dog and what you do with pets and how important they are to you. So just share with us a little bit about what you've experienced the last week or so.[00:04:00]

Deb Krier: Well, you know, I never had a dog until I got married, and so, you know, now that's over 30 years ago. So, but yeah, so I married this wonderful man who showed and still shows beagles, you know, like Snoopy beagles, right? And, and so we show them in dog shows Think beauty contest for dogs. It really is basically what it is.

And through the years I have chaired and helped a lot with our national dog shows. We have one every year. And then I also serve on the board of the National Beagle Club of America. And you know, we always have a house full. I tell people between the dogs and the cats, it's never quiet around here. So, you know, it's, it, there's always something that is rustling around and, and moving about.

So we went to my national board meeting, uh, my annual meeting last, last week, and on our way back, got a call from the house sitter. Something was wrong. And so we, you know, dashed home as fast [00:05:00] as we could and discovered that there was indeed something very wrong with Carmen. She was 11 and a half years old, and obviously at that point what we knew was she was in distress, so we rushed her into our vet.

Who unfortunately, even when we were sitting out in the waiting room, she started having seizures. I mean, this was, this was very, and so you got, so these, the se,

Dr. Brad Miller.: the seizures were pretty evident. They were pretty traumatic. They were,

Deb Krier: oh, and I'll tell you, they scared me. I had never seen a dog have a seizure.

And it just, I mean, I burst into tears. It was just. A frightening thing to happen. And she had two while we were at the, at that vet and love our vet. We've been going to them for 13 years ever since we moved here to Atlanta. And I tell people, your vets are much like your people doctors, right? Yeah. You have to trust them, you know, and, and, and, and we do, we trust our vet.

And, and he said, this is more than I can deal with, aside from anything else. They took an x-ray and discovered that [00:06:00] she had eaten. Probably 50 rocks. Oh my goodness. Her little tummy was just full. He was very strange. Yeah. Now, beagles have been known to just eat weird things, you know, more than once we've had them in for surgery.

But this was clearly something that was, was not normal. But he also said the seizures are not. Part of that. He said, that's gonna be a secondary thing. And so off we go to the, the veterinary hospital again, another group of fabulous people, they looked at the X-ray and went, okay, that's different. And, but what they, they, the diagnosis was that she had a brain tumor.

And you know, they said, now you can. You can get a diagnostic. MRI. There's not a lot of places in Georgia that do that for a dog, so it would be about $10,000.

Dr. Brad Miller.: Oh, and that gets your attention, doesn't it? Yes, that

Deb Krier: did. That did. And we kind of made the face. And because it would've just been diagnostic, you know, anything else would've been on top of that.

Right. And so we said, no, that's, that's not gonna happen. [00:07:00] And the vet said, you know, I just needed to present it to you as an option. He didn't. Anyway, try and push us to do that. But he said, you know, let's keep her here overnight. We need to get the seizures under control, and then we'll go from there. So, you know, went and, and got her the next day, and then he said, you know, uh, it, it's looking a little bit better.

She hasn't had a seizure, you know, for 24 hours. Take her home and, and decide what you're gonna do. And when you looked at the x-ray that they did as a follow-up, you could see, and it was just the funniest thing in the world, the little stones were starting to progress their way through her intestine.

Yeah. It was this little parade of white dots was going through her body.

Wow.

And so, you know, that was, that was kind of entertaining. But, you know, got her home and for a day or so she rallied. And then unfortunately she went downhill very quickly and we made the decision that we needed to. Care for her first and foremost.

And, and that meant that as, as we say in the dog world, she was going to go over the [00:08:00] rainbow bridge.

Yes.

And so we took her back into our very caring vets and they did what, what needed to be done, you know? And. It's, she's the second dog we have lost to cancer this year. Wow. We also lost one of her litter mates back in August, so it's been a bit of a, a rough year.

Dogs get cancer pretty easily, and Beagles in particular get cancer fairly easily. That's why, you know, they, they are used in research because they, they do get cancer and they're nice and sweet, you know, and, and so. It was, you know, it's, it's been a challenge. Our other dogs have really been affected by it, which was kind of surprising.

You know, they interesting. They knew something had changed. Interesting.

Dr. Brad Miller.: So the grief and the, the sense of loss right. Was not only with you, but you sensed it in your other dogs. Mm-hmm. Because you got, I forget several of those. So

Deb Krier: now we have three and, but, and one is, is the remaining litter mate, and we call them the opera litter.

Okay. The mother was diva and their father was Bravo. So we lost Hampson earlier this [00:09:00] year, and Thomas Hampson is a big baritone in the opera world, who my, my mother-in-law just absolutely did fan girl things over. And then we had Carmen and we had Renee, of course, Renee and, and Carmen. You know, Carmen is a character in an opera and Renee is named after Renee Fleming.

But yeah, Renee is, she's very bent outta shape. Oh, you know, she's very much grieving and it's very interesting because. We travel with one or two of our dogs quite often, or, or they go off to dog shows, but somehow they knew this was different, you know, that they were not coming back. And it's just, it's been, I think, almost as hard to watch them go through the grieving process.

Yeah. As for us.

Dr. Brad Miller.: Well, tell me a bit about this grieving for you and your husband Tom, and others who may be involved as well. Mm-hmm. So, kind of what kind of things are you feeling? What are you going through right now? And, uh. Tell me about that. Well,

Deb Krier: you know, yeah. We do grieve the loss of our animals. And I mean, like yeah, I know people who've [00:10:00] grieved for weeks over a gerbil.

Yeah. Or, you know, we see little kids, right. They're goldfish dies.

Speaker 5: Yeah.

Deb Krier: You know, and, and you know, now it's, it's interesting. A lot of people will refer to their pets, especially dogs and cats as their fur babies.

Speaker 4: Yeah.

Deb Krier: Now we love them dearly, but they, they are not our children and I cannot. Imagine the grief that somebody would have losing a child.

Mm-hmm. I mean, that just, you know, I just, I cannot imagine that because I don't have kids. But, but yeah, it is grieving you, you miss their presence. You do things like fill a food bowl from 'em and they're not there. Right. I filled a plate one time for my grandfather and he'd been gone for almost a year.

Speaker 4: Okay. When,

Deb Krier: and so just kind of those things. It's. In a way it is, I think, easier for us because all of us, we still have other pets. Right, right. I think you only had one like you did, and you lose that one pet, it gets very quiet.

Speaker 4: Mm-hmm.

Deb Krier: Mm-hmm. And, and I think that's one of the [00:11:00] challenges.

Dr. Brad Miller.: Well, I just, um, think I want to say first of all.

Agree with you on your loss, and it's a real loss. It's some people want to be a little bit dismissive of when people lose a pet, you know, I to get over it, that kind of stuff, right? It just all, mm-hmm. Yeah. That's not fair either. Mm-hmm. I agree. I agree with you. It, there's a, I think there's a certain appropriate levels of grief that people need to have, you know, that.

And part of what we want to, you know, what we'd like to talk about here is how we can cope with hope and humor in order to give grief its proper place. Mm-hmm. And we grieve our own loss of our health when we are diagnosed with cancer. Mm-hmm. We grieve loss of others when they family members and others when they pass away, or they have a debilitated disease like cancer.

But, you know, there's a certain place for, uh, our pets to be, it's an important place, not quite the same as a human being. Right. And that, that's just my, my take on it. Mm-hmm. But it is still an important place. I know in my life, we just, a little more than two years [00:12:00] ago, we lost our beloved dog, red. She was 17 years old and it's very vibrant, vivacious.

She, she was a golden retriever and, you know, ran and good, very active to the last year, two of her life. And then when she went down, she went downhill very quickly. And, and we had a moment. I remember my, my two, my two sons and my, uh, and or home. When we had to, you know, have, when she had to be taken to the vet for the last time.

Mm-hmm. And we had a moment of. Really cont, she had collapsed on the floor in our kitchen, right in front of the front of the refrigerator. And we just had a moment where we had a real family moment where we all remembered all those good things. Mm-hmm. And so that was a good thing for us to do. And then our house does seem empty after that.

Mm-hmm. We have chosen. My wife Debbie and I have chosen 'cause we travel a lot that we had. Mm-hmm. At least, least this point. Haven't got another pet. We'll, we'll see about that, but, right. It is, I will say I do miss her a lot. Mm-hmm. And, uh Right. And have other times in my [00:13:00] life have missed pets too. I had another pet who really helped me get through a bad divorce 35 years ago.

And I miss that freckles a lot too from, from that era. But let's focus back on what you went through and how it might be applicable to mm-hmm. What our listers are going through and helping them to cope with hope and how this is one. Strategy as it were. Mm-hmm.

Speaker 5: Mm-hmm.

Dr. Brad Miller.: You know, the grief you're going through is real because you care and because you know that your, your, your, your dog Carmen brought you some joy in your life.

Right. So, let's just remember, let's remember Carmen and other pets for a minute. Mm-hmm. About the joy she brought into your life. What kind of joy did Carmen bring into your life?

Deb Krier: Oh my gosh. You know, she was, she was very pretty, you know, and, and, and I had always thought she would have been, you know, she would've had very pretty puppies and we just chose to, to not do that.

Uh, you know, we are in the show world, and so that's part of what people do is they breed their dogs.

Speaker 4: Right.

Deb Krier: But she was the cuddler, you know, she, she would be cuddling and, and, you know, and, and she was very [00:14:00] much a softy. And it's really funny because Renee. Is much smaller than her. Hmm. But Renee's the boss.

Okay, Renee.

Speaker 5: Alright. And,

Deb Krier: but every once in a while Carmen would, would have, you know, she'd be pushed around just a little bit too much, you know, and, and, but yeah, she just, she was kind of that quiet presence. That, that a lot of dogs bring. And I think that's one of the things that happens with our beloved pets, is they pick up on what's going on with us.

You know, we've, we've heard stories of how dogs and, and maybe even cats and things have keep, you know, they keep sniffing or pawing at a certain area on someone's body, and it turns out they have cancer there. Okay. Then of course, you know, we, we know about dogs that help with seizures and, and dogs that help with diabetes and, and all of those things, you know, and, and I mean, one of, when I was in the hospital for so long, a friend of mine has a therapy dog and she brought the dog and that was just a delight.

Wow. You know, and, and because I had, you know, I was [00:15:00] not able to be my, around my own dogs. And so it was so sweet to, to be able to kind of, you know, switch those ears, therefore, a little bit. But I think the thing to remember is they are a very important part of our lives, and you need to grieve them, you know, and, and let yourself go through that process.

You know, it's really funny, I still talk to some of our critters that were gone years ago. You know, I swear there's the ghosts of whoever's that are, are still here.

Dr. Brad Miller.: Yeah. Well, they, uh, I think it's, uh, one of the things we miss, things that we miss things in people in the pads who bring us joy mm-hmm. In our life.

Mm-hmm hmm. And that's what we like to really focus on here a lot. How they're, you know, there's what can bring us good cheer, what can bring can lift us up when we are need that and we can be helpful to them. And so could we, we grieve because we care, you know? Right. We don't really grieve too much about things.

We don't. Care about. Mm-hmm. And so that's a good thing. And, and there's, this is not just, it's not just a feel good thing because we think it [00:16:00] is, you know, there is actually research about this and that, that type of thing. How dogs, uh, dogs and other pets can help us to raise the, the levels of, uh, oxytocin.

Right. And that's the, the feel good hormone. That, uh, they talk about and help us to lower cortisol. Mm-hmm. So that's another way of looking at it. Just that presence of a pet can can do that, which is calming right. And, uh, there's even a study out that said that's compared this is, is somewhat similar to the bond, the hormone that like when new mothers or new fathers have a new baby.

Mm-hmm. There's some, some, there's a, there's a connection here, right? There's a bond that have, do you agree with that? There's some sense of bond between people and pets.

Deb Krier: Right. You know, and, and it's really funny because I think in a lot of cases you can see that this dog is that person's dog. Right. You know, and they kind of ignore the other person in the marriage or, you know, and, and, or that cat or the, whatever that critter is, they bond with [00:17:00] usually one person.

You know, and, and, and they do bond with each other. You know, like I said, Renee is, is really not a happy dog right now. And we looked out yesterday and one of our other dogs, they were out in the dog run. He was over just licking her face. Hmm. She would normally not tolerate that, but he was showing her comfort.

And so I think that's very interesting that, that they feel that, you know, I think the other thing to remember is. Each grief is individual.

Speaker 4: Mm-hmm. You know? Yeah. You

Deb Krier: might feel it for a couple days, or you know, a long time. You know, I mentioned, you know, talking to my dogs, but, you know, don't, don't ever let anybody tell you, well, you should be over it by now, and I don't care if it's a pet or a beloved family member.

Or even just a friend. Your grief is your process.

Dr. Brad Miller.: Right. Right. And that's, um, and it is a part of the process where we mm-hmm. Need to not be dismissive of it to embrace it. Right. And maybe be helpful to those as a tool to help those who are going through bad times. You know, I know [00:18:00] one of the things that.

We do as my wife, Debbie and I take a walk almost every day in the, on a wooded pathway near where we live. And there's almost always people out there walking their, walking their dogs. Right. Uhhuh. And it's just interesting to see that, you know, some dogs are kind of, you know, gonna rock at you and mm-hmm.

Or maybe they're fighting with their, you know, their, the, their owner or whatever. I know there's a real family wanna sniff you out in summer. Other things and mm-hmm. But it's, it's, many times it's a pleasant experience to encounter a, a dog. Mm-hmm. And that, and that, that, that's a good thing. And I think these are the type of things that give us a moment a little, you know, little dopamine hit there, that, that can be helpful to us.

And, and I've certainly have seen it as you've seen, you know, in the hospital mm-hmm. Where people have actually. Use the pets as as therapy. Right. You know, even Right. Believe, or even the church I attend now. Mm-hmm. We have dogs in our church. Mm-hmm. You know, in the right, in the sanctuary. And, and I, and they're wellbe behaved dogs.

If they were ying in Yap. And that might be a different thing. [00:19:00] Right. But Oh yeah. But, but, but anyhow, I'm just, my

Deb Krier: dogs could not do that. Yeah. They, they have them in major airports. I have a friend who takes her dog and it's, you know, she had to go through a rigorous training process and, and all sorts of things.

And she takes her dog. To the airport to out to to Denver International Airport, you know, very large airport. And she said the unusual thing is the dog can tell first when it's somebody who's stressed. And second when it's somebody who would be receptive to them. Yeah. You know, we always laugh that cats know who hates them and that's who they're gonna, right.

They're gonna go up to, but, but yeah, she said the the dogs know, you know, and, and, and I, and it's, she said it doesn't matter if it's a child all the way up to a senior citizen, a lot of, you know, they've missed their flight, you know, whatever it is. As we've said, just kind of sitting there. Petting the dogs, you know, getting a little love from that.

That dog calms them down, you know? And I think that's very important when we're ill to remember [00:20:00] that too. You know, are we needing that? And if you don't have a pet, that's obviously perfectly fine, but you know, maybe you can arrange for a visit or you know something. Well,

Dr. Brad Miller.: let's talk about that in terms of our listeners who may be, you know, thinking, okay, you know, maybe this is a part of thing that could be treatment or part of my.

Therapy for myself or to someone else. What are some ways that we think we could maybe bring pets into the lives of people who need that or make some sort of a, an arrangement in that? Are there some things that we, we could do if we're a pet owner or maybe one who wants to embrace this?

Deb Krier: Right. Well, if you wanna do it yourself, you know, with your pet, there are certainly, excuse me, lots of organizations that work with a variety of medical care facilities and mental health facility facilities where you can go, you do have to pass some pretty rigorous testing.

You know, like you said, we need to make sure that the dog is not gonna knock them over or Right. Bite them or do anything like that. You know, my, my dogs are far too, you know, they, they, they're, they're just busy little dogs. And then you do [00:21:00] undergo training and you know, c certain

Dr. Brad Miller.: breeds of dogs, you know more about this Oh, yeah.

Are more, I mean,

Deb Krier: yeah. Like a, a golden, A golden is a dog that is, you know, just absolutely kind of very much suited for that. A Labrador, you know, my d my neighbors have trained one of their dogs and she's a cocker spaniel, you know, and, and, and so she goes and does pet visits and, and they go to, uh, senior citizen communities Yeah.

And just kind of spread the love there. It's amazing to see the change on somebody's face when they see a pet. You know, I work with senior living communities and I remember one time I do their social media posting and I remember one time, you know, somebody commented, oh my gosh, my mom does not like dogs and.

She was loving on that dog. Like, and, you know, and so there was just something there that she needed, you know, and, and if you are in that need, you'd probably need to call around, you know, or ask your friends if you, you know, again, make [00:22:00] sure that you, you know, your, if you are wanting to do that, make sure you know that, that the dog's gonna behave.

You know, I mentioned that that friend of mine brought her dog when I was in the hospital and the dog had been trained. To get up on the left side of the bed. Mm-hmm. I mean, that was very much, well, that was where all my tubes were. Oh, okay. And so, you know, we had to, and, and you could tell, you know, when we moved the dog over to the right side, the dog was not happy.

It kept saying, no, excuse me. Excuse me. I'm supposed to go over there. You know, and, and, but

Dr. Brad Miller.: what we're talking about here is being safe, proper protocols. Right. There's certain things you need to do, be aware about this. Mm-hmm. Depending on the sort situation. Yeah. Right.

Deb Krier: Well, and if somebody's used to your dog.

And, and say, Hey, bring 'em for a visit. That's, you know, that's fine. You know, and, and we used to take our dogs in to see Tom's aunt when she was in the hospital because she knew the dogs. We knew they would behave. We had, you know, they were current on all their shots. I mean, all of those various things.

But, and of course they thought it was great fun because. She dropped a lot of food [00:23:00] particles under the bed and they, they just kind of vacuumed under there. Right. But, but yeah, it's, you know, or just, you know, my cats definitely seem to know when things are not right. You know? Okay. And they'll be extra cuddly, which for a cat is always kind of entertaining.

Right. Yeah. You know, it's on, it's on their terms. Right. But, but yeah. You, like we were been saying, animals pick up on those things.

Dr. Brad Miller.: I think that's true. And then I also think. We can kind of see how the psychological, emotional and social benefits of this come into play. Right? And what I mean by that is there, I've known as situations where the someone who was home bound sick with cancer and other bad things and they would be look forward to the visit of their daughter and.

Granddaughter, but also as much when the daughter and granddaughter brought their puppy along with them, got the dog. Mm-hmm. So they were, it was a combination of factors, you know, they mm-hmm. They kind of, their motivation and kind of their goal setting was those Sunday [00:24:00] afternoon visits mm-hmm. With the daughter, the granddaughter, and the dog.

Right, but, and they would've been

Deb Krier: NIF if they hadn't brought the dog. Mm-hmm.

Dr. Brad Miller.: That is true. That's what I'm getting at. Mm-hmm. So my point is, we need to look at small victories or motivational things, and this can be a part of it, you know? Mm-hmm. That you are caring, you are connected to another living thing.

And so that's the thing I've know that is just different about when you have a pet involved. Mm-hmm. That is a living thing. That is in your life. Mm-hmm. You know, when my dog red used to, I would be just reading a book or watching TV or something. Sometimes she would just snuggle up to me on my, underneath my hand and say, I demand a head scratch now.

Speaker 4: Hello? Hello. And you

Dr. Brad Miller.: know, I'm, I'm here. You know, and would demand, and that was just a very. Special moment. And those are the type of things I miss. 'cause a living thing could do that. Mm-hmm. Where you can't get that on a video or on the TV or anything else that, you know, can be comforting. Right. And having said that, I think there may be a place where people can, you know, have pictures or photographs or [00:25:00] videos of pets.

Maybe they've. Gone have passed along, you know? Mm-hmm. Or other things. And you know, certainly there's a lot on, on YouTube. There's millions of fun videos about dogs, aren't they, you know? Mm-hmm. And, uh, those might be helpful as well. Mm-hmm. And I think there's appropriate ways that we can interject pets and Right dogs and other animals into our lives.

I know I have a person in the church itiner right now who. Is a real, she's a real horse woman. She shows horses and that kinda thing, but mm-hmm. A part of what she does from time to time is they have a therapeutic horse. Right. I'm not sure what you call it, but where children or other people go and visit with their horses.

Mm-hmm. And it's a therapeutic horse

Deb Krier: Right.

Dr. Brad Miller.: Ride or something.

Deb Krier: Especially for like brain trauma injuries Yeah. And mental health. There's something about that that's

Dr. Brad Miller: very good. There's, and I don't know a whole lot about it, but I do know that it's. It works. You know, she's mm-hmm. Very dedicated to that, uh, volunteerism that she does in, in that, in that regard.

Right. And [00:26:00] so I just think we should just recognize the power of this relationship. Mm-hmm. There's a power in pets. Mm-hmm. Right? And there's a therapeutic part of this, which is real. Which is real, right? And we just need to recognize that, appreciate that, celebrate that as a part of having a sense of the good things that God can provide in our lives, which includes our pets, our dogs, particularly, I'm more of a dog guy than anything else.

And, uh, and that's a celebration of life, you know, and, and what you and I talk about so much here is we're just not gonna be down in the. Gr grim all the time. We deal with the reality of our situations, but we're not gonna stay stuck there. And one of the things that help us get unstuck mm-hmm. Is, is our dog.

And, uh, I wanna say, how cool is it that this is a part of your life, that dogs are a part of your life and you are really invested in it with the dog shows you travel around the country and so on. But, you know, there's the life [00:27:00] cycle. I mean, the real life, you know, sort of cycle, circle of life. Type of thing that happens, and that's part of it too.

Mm-hmm. We go to appreciate that and that you've, uh, and, uh, I know that, um, I think a part when I've been around dog people, you know, pe like breed, I, I've not been around people who show dogs, but I've been around dog breeders a few times. Mm-hmm. In fact, I knew a few who, who have bred had, uh, great Danes.

That was, was quite an experience to be, I get it. Yes. Mm-hmm. I would go, go to their, they. These great Danes would literally, you know, get 'em by the leash and they would drag you across the,

Deb Krier: oh yeah. Mm-hmm. Field

Dr. Brad Miller.: or whatever, massive dogs. But they had a real issue and mm-hmm. I think they finally gave it up because Great Danes would have a relatively short lifecycle.

Deb Krier: Right. The bigger the dog, the shorter the life was kind of Right. It

Dr. Brad Miller.: and they would be a real time for grief. And they raised over several years and they finally gave it up. And then one of the reasons they said they gave it up because it was, uh, the grief was, was great. Right? And so that's a real thing.

And so I wanna say we, [00:28:00] we, your the lifter uppers wanna lift you up. Well, thank you on the loss of Carmen, and I think we want to say to our lifter uppers that we wanna lift you up. That one means of helping to cope with hope. Is it get connected with a pet? Maybe it's your own, maybe it's someone else's, a family member, or maybe there's some ways that you, you could do that.

Or sharing, even sharing photographs and things like, like that. So I'm just gonna turn it over to you to have any thoughts that you wanna have to kind of conclude our time together here today.

Deb Krier: You know, my, my final thought is, you know, we often talk about. You have to go and find humor, you know, to, to lift yourself up because we know how important laughter is, as you've been saying.

And I defy anybody to watch cute cat videos and not get a grin on their face. Right. Or cute puppy videos, you know, and that's just a, a simple way. If you're feeling a little down, a little blue, go to YouTube and, and look for funny animal videos. You know, it's, it's definitely going to brighten your day.

Dr. Brad Miller.: Awesome.

Deb Krier: Great. [00:29:00] Well, you know, this has been such an interesting discussion, but as we said, we always wanna have humor, so it's time now for another one of Dr. Brad's bad jokes of the day.