storehouse: June 2010

A picture lays beside me. Its an old one, in fact I looked on the back of it and it was taken December 2002. It was a Christmas gift to Diana and I..one my parents built up for weeks. Not exactly the kind of gift we expected, but one we loved nonetheless. That December my parents took our dog Gidget to see Santa Clause. The gift happens to be the picture sitting next to me. Gidget is wearing a big red bow and is snuggled up next to Santa. It might just be the cutest thing you have ever seen.

I was ten years old when we went to the Vet to look at a rescue dog. Ironically, it was just about this time in the summer, and my sister was away on a mission trip with church. My parents insisted we were just going to “look” at her as a favor to a friend who had asked my mom to come down. We walked in and Gidget did her beg where she stood on her back legs and waved her little paws at you..and that was it. We took her home. She was a 3 year old fur ball who you loved the minute you saw her.

That dog got into more trouble than I can even begin to tell. She had the biggest sweet tooth and a curiosity that got her more than one summons to the laundry room (where inevitably someone in my family would feel bad and go rescue her after 5 minutes) ill never forget the time I left a bag of cooking chocolate out and my sister and I came home to the entire bag emptied….and Gidget as fat as a pig. She had eaten the entire bag and it had bloated her stomach. Of course she got sick everywhere and we had to call the Vet and nurse her. And honestly, I swear I think that dog was smiling, pleased that she had eaten that whole bag. Then there was the time she ate a whole box of girl scout cookies my mom made the mistake of leaving out. We knew something was wrong when we came home and she was running around the house like a manic..then we saw the wrappers, licked clean I might add. Most recently we came home and she greeted us to the door with an orange face…which my mom later discovered was a cake mix she had found…and eaten. By far my favorite was the time she got the Christmas cookies. My entire life my mom has made Christmas cookies a few days before all the family comes over. She would bake them and them place them in Tupperware boxes in the other room. Gidget was at her heels all day watching her bake then put them in the Tupperware boxes. After figuring out where the cookies were stored and having watched my mom open them she somehow figured out how to open the box. When my mom turned around Gidget was trotting through the hallway with a huge chocolate chip cookie in her mouth until my mom yelled DROP IT from the other room where she promptly dropped her treasure..but not without licking it a few good times. We weren’t even mad at her…I mean to this day it is still a mystery as to how she figured out how to open the box.

It wasn’t just trouble she got into. She loved our family. For twelve years she greeted each and every person who walked through the door. She licked my face when I was in middle school and was crying because once again I didn’t make the basketball team. She stood on my dad every Saturday morning until he woke up and took her for a ride in the truck. She scratched Diana’s door until she would finally wake up and put her in bed with her in the mornings. She held a loyalty to mom because she spoiled her rotten, always bringing home a new collar for every season. She sensed when someone was upset and was always ready to curl right up next to you. She would pout around the house when we were packing for vacation and refused to give anyone a lick when we dropped her off at “summer camp” or the Vet. She made us laugh, and even angry ( like the first Christmas we had her and she was so thrilled a tree was inside she decided to leave a “present” under it.) But we loved her.

Friday was the day I never saw coming. She was old and after trying for years to keep her going her organs finally began to give. We had to put her down. If there was a single thing left to do we would have. I can say with complete certainty that it was the hardest day of my life. The nurses and Vets came in and cried with us. The groomer who has cut her hair for years came too.. she loved Gidget. So many people there loved her and grieved with us. I will never forget it.

She is just a dog. But she was our dog and we loved her. The sorrow hits in waves when you come home and no one is there to greet you. You call her or look for her simply out of habit before suddenly remembering. She truly was a member of our family.

I miss that dog.

But I remain with one repeating thought through it all…

“Lord, may I be burdened for people who do not know you. May it grieve my heart far more for those who die without hope of eternity than it does the loss of my beloved dog.”

May I be willing to take more than just good from your hands.