[Magdalen] Prayers for my friend

[James Oppenheimer-Crawford]

This is always a sad time, and there will always be those moments when
something will happen, out of the blue, that will remind us of one whom we
love but see no longer.

We live in hope that eventually we will see them again.  And who knows?
when we get to that other side, it may turn out that we discover that the
soul of that little dog dwarfs our own. They do love us so, and it's all a
lesson in grace, isn't it?

"Lord give me the grace to be at least half as good as my dog thinks I am."

James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
*“A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved,
except in memory. LLAP**”  -- *Leonard Nimoy

On Mon, Mar 16, 2015 at 2:40 PM, Jay Weigel <jay.weigel at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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.
>