Our Dog Dies

Last weekend our dog, Chaos, died. We had taken her for a walk on Friday night, and she was full of energy, pulling ShaeLynn along. Saturday night we were over at some friends' house. When we got home, she had been throwing up blood. We got her settled for the night around 1 am. The next morning we took her to the vet at 8am when the office opened. She had a fever and was dehydrated. The vet gave her an IV, and after making sure that she was settled, we headed off. I had told ShaeLynn earlier that morning that she might not make it, so she was an emotional wreck. She cried off and on all day long. Chaos was her first friend here in the Philippines. Animals just don't live as long in third world countries. I had five different dogs and two guinea pigs during the years I lived at home. At 5:45pm, we got a text from the vet that Chaos had died. We sat the kids down and told them. Three of them cried, and the fourth one responded angrily. We all respond to grief in different ways. It is amazing. My logical voice reminds me that she was an animal, not a living soul. But we got emotionally attached to her and her sweet personality. The worst thing for me was getting her body and burying here. Death is so much more in-your-face here. There is a very real sense of how Scripture describes us...a vapor here for a little while, but then we vanish. May we live like we believe this reality!