{Bitter}Sweet Sound of Silence

For the last eight years our house has been filled with sounds of a big dog.  Barking at the mailman just because it was his right; the thump,thump, thump of his tail as it hit doors and walls and furniture in it's constant happy wag, the heavy breathing after a long walk, the clicking of his nails on hardwood, and later in years - the licking  aches and pains of old age.  A symphony of sounds that sometimes made us nuts but was all just part of our big, lovable, sweet dog, Duke.

With out going into detail, yesterday we said good bye to him.

His health was quickly failing and we had to make the hard decision. We've been preparing Harrison for this day to come and he is fine. Two days ago he said, "I'm prepared for Dukie to die, I'll miss him".

Apparently the Guy-I-Dig and I were not as well prepared...or did we just not realize how deeply Duke-the-Dog had rooted himself in our hearts?

We have both spent a lot of tears on the passing of our sweet Duke in the last 24 hours. He dropped into our life at a very stressful time and provided happiness and lots of laughter. The GID even gave Duke a voice, (that is ironically very similar to Doug, the dog from the recent movie "Up") And he was the perfect dog for our two boys. Big Brother was scared of most big dogs until Duke entered our lives and, needless to say, the day Harrison came home from the hospital Duke was quite nervous he shook for hours; but as time passed he realized there were plenty of perks of having that "mini-human" around - like that fact that he constantly drops food!

As the GID walked Duke to the car and helped him up (he couldn't get into the car by his own strength anylonger) Harrison said, "I'm going to miss Duke but I'll still love him." after that Harrison and I went to the park to play (to get my mind off of it). Kids are so resilient; a month ago the Vet said that Harrison would be fine and may even ask for a new dog the next day. Harrison asked the GID the same day.

Then as he prayed over dinner last night he added "and prayJesus for Dukie, we still love him".

But the sound of silence in our home weighs heavily on our grown-up hearts.

We'll miss you, Duke. You big ol', silly, beautiful, noisy mut!