It’s been five days. Something still gets me every day, and I know that is how it will be for a while, but I am also finding the daily reminders to remain positive and that I am not alone (thank you Tripawds community).
I have Chance’s ‘smiling’ photo (the blog avatar) now set as the background on my laptop so that I still see his face smiling at me while I work. And that photo can make me smile through the tears.
Chance was cremated, and yesterday was difficult because I went to the vet’s office to pick him up…they also gave me a card which had the Rainbow Bridge story on the front, and the inside was stamped with Chance’s paw print and contained a little bag with some of his fur… but when I got home, a flower arrangement was on my front porch. The flowers were in a smiley face coffee mug and had two smiley face balloons with the message, “thinking of you.” It was from a friend of mine who just learned that Chance was gone. The smiley face balloons immediately made me think of Chance’s photo and again reminded me to stay focused on the positive.
This week is my daughter’s book fair at school. She made her ‘wish list’ and I went up there today to purchase some of the ones she had selected. I was not prepared for the poignancy of one of her choices. It is titled “Houdini was…” and was written by second graders about their class hamster. I flipped through the book, admiring their cute drawings of Houdini, and then about half way through, came across this line, “Houdini died today, but here’s the deal…we are choosing to be ‘HAPPY’ and this is why…”
Each additional page lists something Houdini was to them along with an adorable illustration. The book ends with this:
“As you can see, that little creature was more than a classroom pet…she was family. As a wise person once said, ‘Don’t cry that it’s over, be happy that it happened.’ Thank you, Houdini, for happening.”
Another reminder just when I needed it…and I think we may just write a book of our own…
Thanks for the reminder to Be Pawsitive.
If you feel up to submitting a brief review of Houdini Was… we’d be happy to publish it for the community in the Tripawds Amazon Selections blog.
What a great name for a dog, Chance. That is what we do when we let them into our hearts. We take a chance on life, on seeing things anew, on finding joy in tugging on a rope. When our time together is up and you pick up your broken heart, you will put it in a box and it will rattle around till one day, you listen and the rattling sound isn’t as loud as it was and you can look at the face of that love one and smile though you still have more rattling to do. Then one day that heart though scarred and rough will be ready and still tender in places to love again a creature so sweet that the scars soften but stay as you give to another the love your Chance gave to you.
Blessings on you.
Jen,
The smiling photo of Chance is so wonderful, it makes me smile to see it.
I hope you can continue to see the ‘pawsitive’ things that pop up each day. One foot in front of the other you are making your way through. I sent you the book we talked about it should come by Friday. I hope it helps.
Spirit JD’s mom
Jen,
I finally got over here to read your blog and see your pictures. It’s not just the angle, Sadie and Chance could be siblings (except than Chance was about 3 weeks older than Sadie (she would have turned 10 on 10/31. We only had Sadie about 3 years, but a while back we lost 3 dogs over the course of a couple years that we had for over 10 years. I’m so sorry that you lost your lifelong companion. Chance was a beautiful boy (of course, I’m a little biased)
Spirit Sadie’s mom