Your Best Friend and the Turning of a Page

Here are my nephew Adam and my parents' mutt Buddy chilling under a ceiling fan on a hot day in North Carolina.  Adam is 14; Buddy is 17.  Buddy has been around for the growing up of three very lovely kids.  He has eaten their shoes and their parents' shoes.  In his younger days, he stalked them by walking along the top of the grandparents' couches.  He has challenged strange visitors to my parents' home.  He has engaged his world in the ways available to him:  barking, howling, digging, chasing, wagging, licking, loving, and scratching his back on the rug.

Buddy, a rescue, came to my parents by way of foster parents who checked out Buddy's future home and then followed up to make sure that high standards were for real rather than an illusion.

In his youth, Buddy required restraint when neighbors, squirrels, and chipmunks came.  In his old age, we forget that time and vigor have passed and restrain him anyway.  He doesn't mind.

In his old age, Buddy has required kindness only.  He gets that from my family.  None of us can remember what life without Buddy looks like.

It's been hard, then, to watch him struggle with the heat--so much so that he can't get off the floor to walk across the room to go to sleep.  It's as sad as it is hard to realize life will change because of the passing of a friend like Buddy.  You wait, you wonder what the right time is.  You know you can't prevent suffering, and you can't really alleviate it.  All you can do is show up for it.  All you can do is honor life.

Please pray for Buddy and the people who love him.