By the time most of you read this, I\u2019ll have attended the annual March Madness party that I\u2019ve written about before. Lots of men in an undisclosed location, watching NCAA basketball on several TVs, drinking beer, playing poker and eating mass quantities of smoked meat, meatballs and other delicacies.<\/p>\n
I wrote my first column about this in 2009, and I\u2019ve been attending ever since, with a gap over the COVID years. The highlight was the year we all watched 15th-seeded Lehigh University \u2014 led by one of my former journalism students, C.J. McCollum \u2014 beat second-seed Duke in one of the biggest tournament upsets ever. The fact that I\u2019m a rabid fan of North Carolina \u2014 Duke\u2019s hated rival \u2014 made it even better.<\/p>\n
I mention all this to set the scene for the Lehigh-Boston University Patriot League Championship basketball game last week, which I attended with a friend. Stabler Arena was rocking, and Lehigh played great.<\/p>\n
As Lehigh pulled away for the 74-60 victory that would put them in the NCAA tournament, fans \u2014 including me \u2014 began chanting, \u201cWe want Duke!\u201d<\/p>\n
OK, we were a bit carried away. But it was fun.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m still feeling the glow, even though Lehigh ended up losing its first game in March Madness. My great mood inspired me to offer a feel-good story that follows up on some old columns about an old friend.<\/p>\n
Dr. Gene Witiak is a veterinarian who founded Lehigh Valley Animal Hospital and HanoverView Animal Hospital and practiced for more than 55 years before retiring in 2019. I wrote years ago about his books \u201cTrue Confessions of a Veterinarian: An Unconditional Love Story\u201d and \u201cThe Hug: A Veterinarian\u2019s Secret Potion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Think \u201cAll Creatures Great and Small,\u201d Lehigh Valley-style. They were very enjoyable, at least for me as a big animal lover. Both still are available at amazon.com.<\/p>\n
Now Witiak has a new book out, and it\u2019s another charmer. The title is \u201cI Need a Career Change \u2026 But I\u2019m Only Two Years Old.\u201d That refers to the opening section, which focuses \u2014 with some literary license \u2014 on a real Midwestern black Lab named Amos, whose overly outgoing personality caused him to \u201cfail\u201d seeing-eye school, but who turned out to be perfectly suited to work as a courthouse therapy dog.<\/p>\n
The book then pivots to the story of Lehigh County\u2019s courthouse facility dog, Ramona, as told by her handler, Kimberly Silvestri, victim witness coordinator for the Lehigh district attorney\u2019s office. Ramona, also a black Lab, arrived there from Canine Partners for Life in 2017 and quickly began playing an important role in calming victims and witnesses just by her presence.<\/p>\n
Silvestri wrote, \u201cRamona \u2026 has given assistance and comfort to victims of crime of all ages, but particularly to child victims, elderly victims and victims of sexual assault. Ramona has been utilized in homicide cases, aggravated assault, arson and sexual assault. She has been amazingly helpful and comforting to so many people.\u201d<\/p>\n
If you\u2019ve ever had a dog, you understand perfectly. Our dogs always have known instinctively when I needed their comforting presence \u2014 on the bed, on my lap or leaning against me. Just touching them makes me feel better.<\/p>\n
The book also shares several dozen of what Witiak calls \u201cimpact stories\u201d that he collected from pet owners who wrote about the way their companion animals enriched their lives and from children writing about their school\u2019s therapy dog.<\/p>\n
I was particularly moved by the story of Angus, told by the sister of his late owner, Joe. Angus was a border collie who became Joe\u2019s companion while Joe was going through a divorce.<\/p>\n
The storyteller wrote of the time the family had been trying to reach Joe for a couple of days and finally contacted police. They found he had died in his favorite chair.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd where was Angus?\u201d she wrote. \u201cAn officer replied that they found Angus faithfully at Joe\u2019s side, keeping him company. Amos had brought and dropped a supply of toys around Joe\u2019s chair throughout the day.\u201d<\/p>\n
My dog, Gracie, brings me her toys every time she wants attention, which is most of the time. So that one choked me up.<\/p>\n
Ramona will be retiring from her official duties this spring. Silvestri will appear with her 2-4 p.m. today (March 21), for Witiak\u2019s book signing at HanoverView Animal Hospital, 7122 Bath Pike, East Allen Township. The book is available for sale there or by contacting Witiak by email at thehug.witiak@gmail.com.<\/p>\n
By the way, the book concludes with 20 of Witiak\u2019s own stories and reflections, another reminder of what a great storyteller he is. He shared another with me on the phone this week, when he explained that he euthanized his own dogs and cats over the years when it was time.<\/p>\n
He told me he shed tears more than once as he said goodbye to those old friends. \u201cOne of our cats actually picked up his paw and handed it to me,\u201d he told me. \u201cIt was like he was saying, \u2018It\u2019s OK. I\u2019m ready.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, even when they are, we aren\u2019t. So I\u2019m thankful for the empathy of many caring vets who have walked me through those painful times.<\/p>\n
The best ones aren\u2019t just technicians. Like Gene Witiak \u2014 and our four-legged friends \u2014 they\u2019re comforters.<\/p>\n
This is a contributed opinion column. Bill White can be reached at whitebil1974@gmail.com. The views expressed in this piece are those of its individual author, and should not be interpreted as reflecting the views of this publication. Do you have a perspective to share? Learn more about how we handle guest opinion submissions at themorningcall.com\/opinions. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By the time most of you read this, I\u2019ll have attended the annual March Madness party that I\u2019ve…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144646,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,1559],"class_list":["post-144645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}