A Death in the Family

The Smith household lost a family member earlier this week. Our 15 year old poodle, a girl named Rev, died Monday. If you're a pet person, I don't have to explain what a family goes through when a pet dies, especially one that's been with you for 15 years. It's sad, it's traumatic, it's wondering how much her running buddies (a 12 year old dachshund and an almost two year old poodle) really understand about what's happened. We just went through this two years ago when Rev's littermate, a boy named DJ, died at 13. But, deaths in the family are something you never, ever get used to. As a pastor, you'll get asked the question of whether pets go to heaven. Before our losses, my stock answer was, "I sure hope so." Now, more than ever, that is my hope. In my opinion, there just has to be a special reward for one of God's creatures who shows us such large amounts of love, loyalty and companionship. We've already had a couple of people offer puppies to fill the void. Thanks for the offers, and thanks for all the thoughts on Facebook, but we'll probably wait a while.