Moses made a textbook recovery from his knee surgery of 2012 and life was fine for him and for us. Our days unfolded in orderly fashion and all was well until …
… September, 2014 ended sadly and suddenly for our beloved
Moses. He was taken down by a tick-borne disease that crept up on us all. We never
saw it coming, and by the time it took its toll it was too late to save him. Mo
lost his battle to survive on the first day of autumn - a warm and beautiful day
filled with light. During the golden hour of late afternoon he crossed the
rainbow bridge. He was just 10.
After Moses died, we suffered deep loneliness. We were
desolate and so depressed. Our family was diminished, our pack incomplete.
There was too much quiet. There was no warmth to fill the stillness. There was
no protection in the long nights. The third breath in the room was stilled. There
were no paw clicks on the tile floors. Even the cats and macaws could not fill the emptiness.
We asked ourselves if we had energy and time left in our older age to raise
another pup, and we decided that we did.
Unable to express our profound grief, we have allowed time,
the healer of broken hearts, to pass. That is not to say our hearts are healed;
far from it. However, there does come a time when the heart is ready to move
on.
Added to the loss of Moses, we also lost our oldest cat,
Kitty, this past January. She was probably 17 and was just worn out. She was with us for over 15 years. Soft-spoken, kind and sweet tempered, Kitty
was a skilled mouser and a wonderful lap-warmer. She watched over us all and I’m
sure she still does from her little spot in Heaven.
Today, April 28, 2016, would have been Mo’s 12th
birthday. It is springtime again on the farm. Geese are flying in and making
their nests. The fruit trees are in blossom. It is raining a lot and everything
is greening up. The lush grass needs mowing at least twice a week. Dandelions are everywhere.
Today we choose to celebrate BB Kiddo, our new German shepherd
girl. She was born on Sept. 18, 2014, and we named her Beatrix Kiddo vom
Kirchenwald . Bred and born in Gibsonia, PA, BB is the daughter of West German Schutzhund
III parents. We named her after Uma Thurman’s character, The Killer Bride, in the
“Kill Bill” films.
We got BB at the beginning of the winter of 2014 when she
was 8-weeks-old. She is as different from Moses as any dog can be. She is our
eighth German shepherd; our fourth girl. She has been our biggest challenge,
too. This big girl is still attending obedience classes which provide a structured,
stabilizing and socializing environment for us all. BB attained her Canine Good
Citizen degree before her first birthday and will pass her advanced (CGCA) test
in the next few weeks. The classes are a new form of family fun and therapy for
us and are necessary for BB if we are to be able to manage her 80-pound
exuberance in our later years.
We are never too old to learn. And life goes on until, one
day, it doesn’t …
