Trip to Shannon's

A couple of weeks ago I flew out the Philly to visit Shannon. I've been a few times since moving to Pittsburgh - it's really cheap to get there from here and I always have a good time when I go. This trip was, as it always is, a nice break. This time however it was a bit different than the other trips.

But first let me tell you a bit about Shannon. She's like a half sister... though my parents have no other kids (that any of us know of). Alison (my sister) used to live with Shannon in New Jersey (5min from Philly) and worked for UrbanPromise - Shannon continues to work here. There's a long story in there, but the short version is Shannon and Shiaheem (see this post) are now a bit like adopted family. Yeah for everyone!

UrbanPromise was recently featured on 20/20 with Diane Sawyer. They did a special on children living in poverty in Camden, NJ (aka murder town usa). Shannon did so much work and some of her personal video footage was even included in the show. It was an amazing show and lots of good things have come from everyone's efforts.

This is all to say that Shannon was definitely in a professional highlight moment (in my opinion). She managed through much chaos and kept things moving while the organization was receiving emails and phone calls (literally) every second once the show had aired. Impressive huh?

At the exact same time, Shannon best bud Winslow, her 1yr+ golden retriever puppy was really, really sick. He'd already had an eye removed weeks earlier due to cancer. She was driving him in to see the vet every morning for radiation treatments. She'd found more lumps on 'winniewoo' and the latest test had come back saying the cancer was all over. The vet gave him 1 month tops.

It should be noted that he's a famous dog. Winslow's puppy photo is on a website I worked on while in Boston. I worked on a show called FETCH! and one of the features of the site was photos of dogs that kids could choose to be their 'avatar'. He was, of course, one of the most popular picks. Shannon and winniewoo, (though I nicknamed him winkiewoo after losing an eye) were inseparable. Winslow went to work with Shannon, went to the barn with Shannon... was just an easy going dog that everyone loved. She took him to a marathon once and strangers, running in the race would stop to pet him! The kids at urbanPromise loved him and would stop by Shannon's office to say hi and chat with him at recess.

Shannon had to put Winslow down the morning after the 20/20 show aired. He wasn't doing well and Shannon had to call the vet and schedule it during the chaos of everything else. The timing was pretty weird, she told me she was petting winnie's head on her lap that night, watching donations come in every second, then she got an email from Diane Sawyer...

I came home from this last trip with a case of the sads. Winslow was a great dog. He was hilarious, he loved sports socks and could untangle them in seconds, he may have thought he was a cat and would lie across the back top part of the couch, he always looked like he was smiling and having a great time. I think he really was.

Photo from our thanksgiving trip.