A Heartfelt Thank You with Memories of Our Pets Who Have Left This Life

My sweet daughter is having such a difficult time with this loss of her little dog. If only we knew if she were safe. If only we could have her here. It has been two sad days around here and working in such a horribly unsteady environment has not helped me one bit!

So I pray. I know you pray. Prayer is a powerful thing. I think I will pray differently so that my trusting God will give us some peace about this situation.

Life is so cruel. My words don't come as easily since this little dog left. She is very frail and old and very confused. She is going blind and deaf and has had liver disease ravage her little body.

I want to say thank you. The animal control officers at three animal control agencies have been nice passing info back and forth. Everyone over here has been a Godsend! Without your love and support this would be unbearable.

I remember the day we lost Shadow our black lab. That crazy pup was always a runner! I think he had gypsy blood! If you opened a door, he was off! The night he got out when one of the kids had a friend over and she left the door opened my heart dropped to my toes! I knew instantly he was never coming back. He liked to frolic up by the water near Webster Lake. The law could never catch him he was fast! But not fast enough for the truck that hit him not two minutes from our house on a very busy street! He died instantly! I suppose that should have given us some comfort . But my silly ole cat Boots, he mourned for two solid weeks! He sat in the bedroom window and howled for all he was worth! One day I just could not stand it any more! I grabbed his face and pressed it against mine! I sternly looked him straight in the eyes and said calmly, "Boots, Shadow is never coming back, he is gone." He never mourned in that window again! That silly cat and goofy dog chased each other around our house like two brothers! They were both black and that was the end of their physical similarities. They grew up together and the cat would lay in wait for the dog to come bounding around the corner! He would jump on his back and they would tumble across the floor. I guess you would be sad too if you lost such a dear friend.
We lost that silly Shadow in July 1991. The winter had been tough, I lost my oldest sister Pat in February. Then September 11th happened. Then my mom passed away in November. Life was not great! But people fill those holes in your life.
When Shadow died my boss at the insurance co. could not look me in the eye. She raised show dogs, the gorgeous Great Danes! Instead she left on my desk a sympathy card with a beautiful heartfelt note and a box of tea cookies and a tin of tea! People can be so kind.

One month later I dreamed about Shadow. I dreamed I saw him running on a beautiful open field full of flowers. He ran to the edge of a huge crystal clear lake and dove in! He swam out into the middle of that lake and shot straight up from the water, shook the water off his back looked directly at me and whispered, "You are going to be alright". I am not sure if God had given me a sign because you know me and God have a long history together. I say "Listen God, I don't want to be disrespectful but I need your help. I need a sign." God never lets me down and I often think of that dream and wonder. Perhaps God just wanted me to find some comfort so he let me have that dream. It was odd because my daughter Rebekah alias Tillie and I tend to be quite loud! Oh heck, why tell you a fib now, we all are loud! It is the Slovenian/Irish blood in all of us!  But we were being loud and very silly one evening and we were home alone with Shadow. He looked at us and together ,we will go to our respective graves, believe that dog told us to "Be quiet"! The rest of our family still teases us but we heard him. We would not tell you a lie!

I am tired, I am frustrated and I am going to crawl into my bed and cry some more. But before I do I will share a picture of Shadow with you. He is one of the many pets we had that my sweet little college girl cradled like she was their mother. She would lay in the dog kennel with this dog and rub his ear while sucking her thumb as a small child and sing all at the same time. She would make up songs to sing or she would sing "He's Got The Whole World in His Hands" or "Mockingbird". Here she is with Shadow. This was their "Cha Cha Cha" picture!

Tomorrow I will tell you about Casey and then I will tell you Spat's story.
Let me sign off by saying you are all well loved over here and don't forget to say your prayers!