A Special Christmas Tree

It is remarkable how Christmas can be such a wonderful time of year, but at the same time, it can be very sad for some. I have friends who have lost loved ones or in the midst of battling serious illnesses, some who have had to say good-bye to beloved pets, a few who have lost jobs. Others are traveling to visit grandchildren or excited to have found that absolutely perfect gift. So it is definitely a mixed bag to end the year.

I have written about our pups in past blog entries, and they all have their own story to tell in my last novel, A Life Time After Time. Two of those posts have a picture of our most recent family member, Remy.  She was a service dog whose owner could no longer care for her, and through a friend of a friend, Remy came to us. I'm sure you have heard or read about dogs who care for those in a wheelchair, are blind, or perhaps suffer from seizures. I'm sure the list is quite lengthy, but Remy was a first for us. Her job was to sniff out bed bugs in hotel rooms!

Joe and I would often laugh how we could picture a line-up of pups who were to be trained for various jobs, some for the blind, others for the deaf, and so on. Then the trainer pointed to Remy and said “bed bugs!” I was thankful she didn’t find any in our bed. She was 6-1/2 when we brought her home for her official retirement. She was a very healthy girl and thought she would easily see 12 years, maybe even 13. It was not meant to be. A few weeks ago, she became very ill, and 48 hours later, she was gone.

I won't go into all the details of what happened, except to say at the end, the most amazing thing happened. She was brought into a private room where we could spend a little time with her before the doctor came in to inject her. She had tubes in her nose and an IV in her leg, and was having a hard time breathing. Her eyes were rolled back in her head, and we were not certain she even knew we were there. We talked to her and petted her anyway, because you never know. All of a sudden, her eyes came into focus, and with what little strength she had, she lifted her head and looked right at us. The love we felt from Remy was almost a physical sensation, it was so strong.  It was just for a few seconds, then she put her head down and slowly stopped breathing. She was almost gone before the doctor came into the room.

Now I guess I should get to the point of the tree you see above, because I truly don’t mean to make this an over-the-top sad Christmas story. We have always had an ornament for each of our dogs to put on our big tree. Out of the blue, Joe thought it would not only be a good idea to get a small tree just for the dog ornaments, but also get ornaments for the dogs he had as a child who were not represented. I didn’t have dogs growing up, although we did have a stray once when I was a toddler that we fed for a few days, and then she wandered off, but we called her Cookie. I'm not sure who named her or what really happened to her, but that was my brief experience with having a pet when I was a child. So I decided to include her as well on the tree.  Neither one of us thought of doing this until this year, and we put it together before Remy got sick. But the tree means even more to us now that Remy won't be here for Christmas. The football on the shelf below the tree was Remy’s favorite toy.

You might think it would only be a tree of sadness, since Remy’s passing was such a short time ago. But quite the opposite has happened. Now we look at that tree and enjoy chatting about all of our pups. The funny things they did throughout their lives, their quirks, their unique personalities, and even how they came to rescue us. Because I feel they rescue us far more than we rescue them. I also believe all of our girls are sitting by that Rainbow Bridge, lined with Christmas trees this time of year of course, and working on who will be rescuing us next.  The next pup (and they are always puppies to me, no matter their age), does not replace the last one. It’s merely a way to keep the family growing. What a joyous party it will be when we are all together again!

I hope you have a very Merry and Blessed Christmas! Remember to keep reading, keep writing, and always enjoy your day.