Mourning and Celebration

I have to tell you, June 2012 has not been the greatest of months for us and our friends.

My best friend Kim lost her mother suddenly and unexpectedly on June 1st. Another of my close friends unexpectedly lost her baby at 39 weeks (he was due today). And we lost our beloved Murdock yesterday. He suffered heart failure while he was playing with Duane and Rachel in the backyard before Rachel's 4th birthday party.

While our loss can't even begin to compare to the losses of my friends and their families (the details of which I won't expand on here, because they aren't my stories to tell), I think it is safe to say that June 2012 is not a month I would normally care to remember.

But as I mentioned, we had a birthday to celebrate this month, so I can't write off the month completely. My little girl is turning 4 years old! And yesterday we had to pull ourselves together to celebrate, through all the grief, and try to find the positive in the month of June.

It was a pretty hot day, but everyone managed to stay cool in the shelter and we had a great turnout of family and friends gathered to celebrate Rachel and Owen's birthdays. The kids loved playing on the playground, and we had a water balloon toss/fight. Rachel had requested a Team Umi Zoomi cake, and Owen wanted an Ice Age era cake (not the movie, mind you -- an authentic ice age era cake). The cakes didn't melt in the heat, though they did get hit with a bit of water from the water balloons.

Rachel got so many great presents. I mainly requested clothes for her, because she has more toys than she knows what to do with right now, but the toys she got were great and she has already enjoyed playing with most of them!

After the party, we went to my sister's house for a private Father's Day dinner with my side of the family. The kids played on the slip-n-slide and the trampoline, and later on we all gathered to play some Wii. Rachel beat pretty much everybody at bowling -- she is getting pretty good!

Late last night, after the kids and I went to bed, Duane took Murdock to his brother's house and they buried him on an island in the middle of his pond, next to his friend Daisy (the bassett hound). It seemed like the best place to lay him to rest, since we aren't planning to live in this house too many more years. This way we can visit him whenever we go to visit with the family, and we know he is close to people he loved.

It is eerily quiet in the house now. You don't notice all the things a dog does until he isn't there anymore. There is no clicking of his nails on the floor, no lapping of water from his bowl, no big brown eyes just staring at you, loving you unconditionally. I will miss my buddy. All the things he ate that he shouldn't have, all the fun times we had in the backyard as he ran around, how he always knew when I just needed a cuddle. I have so many wonderful memories of him. And I am grateful for each one. I hope we gave him the life he deserved, and I hope he knew we loved him very much.

So please remember to pray for my friends, their families, and my Murdock. And remember to appreciate every day with the people and animals you love.

Here is one of my favorite videos of Murdock.