All Dogs Go to Heaven

It's Saturday morning. My last morning to sleep in before I head off to MDA Camp where each day will begin at 6am and end with me passing out around midnight. My body will ache with exhaustion but the rewards will be great in the smiling faces of our kids who spend each other week of the year wishing they were at camp and that it lasted much longer than 6 days.

This morning after I let the dogs out and ate some cereal, I climbed back in to bed to finish a book that I have been reluctant to read for some time. For Christmas, I received the book Marley and Me by John Grogan. I've heard what a wonderful book it was but knew that it ended with the death of his beloved labrador retriever Marley. As the end grew near, tears trickled down my face. The love that dog had for his family was amazing and he lived a full and wonderful life. And as I read about his final moments I sobbed audibly. I'm always one to try to suck it up and not cry but I just couldn't help myself. It is a touching story and I encourage everyone to read it.

Dogs are such wonderful creatures. I, myself, have loved many dogs in my 33 years. I had a schnauzer named Buckwheat when I was growing up. As a puppy, she would lay on my forearm with her head resenting in my palm. I would carry her around like that for hours. She slept with me every night. It's amazing how a 12lb dog could take up a whole bed. I would wake many times to her snuggled up right next to me, me hugging the edge of the bed and looking back to see that the rest of the bed was wide open. Enough for 3 more people to fit in yet Buckwheat and I took up such a small space. I remember coming home from college, looking at Buckwheat and saying, "Let's go to bed" and she would run back to my bedroom as if I had never left. We had to put Buckwheat down back in 2000. She had grown quite old and had tumors all over her body. What a little angel she is. I do believe that when it's my time to pass through those pearly gates, she will be there to greet me.

So I take this time to love on my current babies, Hattie & Oliver. They bring me joy each day as they greet me when I come home, snuggle next to me in the mornings with their morning breath and lay in their bed in my office as I work each day. No one can tell me that dogs aren't smart or don't know what's going on. As I read in my bed this morning, sobbing, Oliver jumped up on the bed and laid next to me. Hattie paced on the floor at the foot of my bed. Hattie's hips aren't what they used to be and she now needs assistance to get up on the bed.

I cherish my four-legged friends as the family that they have come to be. I know that in my lifetime I will mourn their loss, welcome new family members and experience that loss again. But as the great Alfred Lord Tennyson said "'Tis better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all." I wouldn't trade the unconditional love I receive from them for all the money in the world!