[Magdalen] Prayers for my friend

[Jay Weigel]

Your prayers are requested for my Texas friend Lindsey, who had to put her
beloved border collie, Zipp, to sleep this morning. She is heartbroken as
it was so unexpected.

Zipp was a "lost dog", literally--he turned up in her church's parking lot
as a teenaged pup about 7 years ago and although they tried every possible
means of finding his owner, he was never claimed. There had been a cattle
auction the week he turned up, and Lindsey still thinks that's where he may
have come from. In any case, he attached himself totally to Lindsey and
there was no changing his mind. Her senior border collie, Sugar (long since
gone to Rainbow Bridge), wasn't terribly pleased to get a little brother,
but she grudgingly accepted him so long as he understood who was the big
dog. Zipp became Lindsey's guardian, protector, and constant companion.
When she met the man who is now her husband, Zipp had to inspect and
approve him "or I wouldn't have gone out with him, " she always said. Zipp
got really sick about a week ago and the vet had diagnosed him with
megaesophagus, a condition that's rare in adult dogs. She was prepared to
deal with the special feeding procedures he would have had to have for the
rest of his life, but when she went to pick him up, he couldn't walk. She
found out that when he was given his bath at the clinic, he "somehow fell".
She thinks one of the people who works there may have dropped him or
otherwise mishandled him. In any case, he was permanently paralyzed in his
hindquarters, and she made the decision to put him down because he was so
miserable. She still has Emma, a rescued half border collie, half blue
heeler, but she will miss Zipp, the dog who chose her, terribly.