Welcome to PON Times!
Fall 2010 - Winter 2011
HI
READERS!
Thanks to the enormous response this last time, we got some great vacation pics and more. I’ve tried to place all the material we received this time, because I’m sorry to say this will be my last issue. Thanks to everyone who has contributed now and in the past—it’s been such a pleasure working with all of you. Watch your mail for information about refunds if you have unused subscription portions. Try and be patient, as we are now and always have been non profit so it may take a little while; I will begin with those of you who are newer subscribers and work backward. It’s been a truly wonderful experience, learning about all of you out there and being fortunate enough to be part of your PONs’ lives over these last ten years as a volunteer, and several years as editor/producer. I hope you will keep in touch with me and share photos. Cheri O’Neal I think, would be amazed and pleased at how far we came and what a truly great publication PON Times evolved into! All of you as readers made it such a true community, and give it such a good natured spirit.
The flip side of all the smiles I get being in this position, is the loss I have felt for many of you when you’ve had to say goodbye to your PONs. The flip side to the joy they bring is that it rips our hearts out when they leave us. And usually I’ve never “met” the PONs I that I come to know thru PT, but I feel as I know them and their owners. One of those was Boris, who captivated me years ago when he and Natasha did a car commercial—at the time, I subscribed to PON Times and had not begun working on it yet. The photos of these PONs were terrific and over the years, I really felt I knew them. Boris was ill this last year, an unusual set of circumstances, unusual illness, and his owner Bill battled it in ways that most of us would never have heard of. Bill kept a journal which we had planned to publish in summer, but after months of progress, Boris died and it was heartbreaking to hear. I’d lost my one of my own a couple of years before, but with Barley, I knew I would lose him from the diagnosis/prognosis, so as difficult as it was, I knew the outcome. With Boris, the hope and recovery that was there did not prove to be permanent, and so I felt that roller coaster must have been crushing. Now, before we even got a memorial out for Boris, we heard that his companion Natasha had left us as well. Our hearts go out to Bill at such a sad loss of his dearest friends.
The rest of this issue is sure to make you smile. It covers
Fall and Winter, the end of 2010 and the beginning of 2011. A
wonderful year we wish you and your PONs and thanks again,
especially to Cj, Marsha, Rebecca, Deborah, Tom, Anna, Volker, Merrilee,
Julie, Maggie, Jan, Donna, Doug, and Sharon. And Bozy.