They say that a dog is “a man’s best friend”. I don’t know about “best friend” but they certainly do become a part of your family. Thirteen years ago Joe surprised me with a little puppy. He had picked him up assuming, as the ad stated, that he was a “lab puppy”. A lab he was not, but he was the cutest thing we had laid eyes on. We let him sleep in our room. We took him out in the middle of the night when all we wanted to do was sleep. He became king of our world pretty quickly. We had lost Dakota only a few short weeks prior and he filled a void in our hearts.
On Friday, February 11, we said goodbye to our dog Monroe. His hips couldn’t do the job anymore and he just couldn’t walk at all. Our big, sweet dog had to be put to sleep. I knew this day would come sometime soon but I wasn’t prepared for the actual day that we had to make that decision. The decision had to be made but it will take time for life to return to “normal” around here without him.
Unfortunately that is not the end of grief in our household. While we were away on vacation our little “Leo boy” was hit by a car and killed. This one hit the whole family pretty hard. We had known that our other two dogs (Monroe was still alive at the time) were getting old and their time was coming. When we received the call we were prepared for it to be any dog, but Leo. The kids were devastated, as were Joe and I. Funny how an animal can have that kind of effect on your heart. So we returned from vacation without Leo.
Life is slowly returning to a more normal pace, but their absence will take some getting used to.
“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love ANYTHING, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give your heart to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it up carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket – safe, dark, airless – it will change…” C.S. Lewis
