Snickers Our Beloved Dog

4 Years ago about right now, we were getting ready to head off to a family reunion.  And we noticed our dog seemed very sick.   We had just arrived home after watching 24th of July Fireworks.  I knew Snickers was so sick that he might die while we were gone.  Hoping that he just had some kind of fixable problem, we found ourselves sitting at the Vets at 11 pm.  


We were very surprised when the Vet told us that his kidneys were failing him and that he would die within a couple of days.  

Jonathan was with me and this news came as quite a shock to us.  We went home with our puppy and broke the news to the rest of the family. 

We faced a hard decision.   We could either put him down or let him die slowly, alone.  (We were leaving the next day for a family reunion)  Our boys all cried and slept on the floor around our dog, with their arms around him.   We let them make the decision. We prayed about it as a family and decided that we would rather put Snickers down then let him suffer alone and die while we were gone.  

The Vet was very kind and tender with us all.  He had the boys hold on to Snickers, hug him and tell him that we loved him as he passed away.  We wondered if this would be too much but none of them wanted to leave him.  It was a difficult moment but we let him go knowing he was so loved by all of us.  

We buried him over at Cottonwood..Grandma and Grandpa's 4.5 acres of paradise...Dog heaven.  The boys made a tombstone of sorts and each wrote their own sweet little goodbye message and tribute on it.  

Our cute doggy Snickers.  We loved  him...He was cute and had the softest ears.   He had his own sweet soul that you could see when you looked into his warm brown eyes.  Our boys loved him.  He brought them joy. 


We arrived at the family reunion late and pretty drained emotionally... but it gave us some quiet time as a family as well to ponder and mourn.    

At our family reunion, we were all happy to be there but sad too.   I won't forget the sweet opportunity we had to talk that night in our condominium at The Wolf Mountain, about life and death.  Ironically, their Grandpa Knudsen passed away just months earlier of the same condition--kidney failure.    We talked about creation and life and how our Heavenly Father is aware of it all.    It was a humbling time and some very sweet prayers were offered by our children.    

Then we experienced a little miracle when we arrived home.....  

We felt the reality that Snickers was gone when we arrived home and no doggy was there to greet us.  Our children were quite sad.     We all were sad.     Now, Grandpa Knudsen LOVED dogs and we were thinking about him as well.   Steve set out to deliver flyers to homes in our neighborhood about an upcoming youth activity.    As he walked from home to home, he noticed a happy golden retriever following him.    Because of the strict on leash laws in our area, dogs are rarely seen roaming about.   But, here was this golden retriever following Steve.   Steve would walk up to the door of someone's home and that doggy would sit and wait for him.   Then he followed him to the next house and kept doing this until Steve returned home.   Steve walked in and told us the story, and we noticed this golden retriever looking through the side windows of our front door and appeared to be smiling, panting with his tongue out, as if to say, "hey, come outside and play with me!"    Our boys all shouted excitedly and went our the front door and began to play with this dog.   They played together for a couple of hours until it began to get dark.  The sadness they felt was lifted away!  I told them, I thought I knew where this dog might belong, so as it got dark, I took a few of the boys with me and we walked out of the neighborhood and down the hill to return this dog to their owner.  When we got there, we learned that this happy dog was not theirs.   And, we said goodbye, turned around and this happy golden retriever, ran across the road, up the hill at Flat Iron Park.  He seemed to know just where he needed to go and we waved goodbye.  

We call this our angel dog miracle.   Some angels are doggies, sent to comfort little children in their sorrow.   We believe that Grandpa Knudsen had a part in this miracle. And, I believe he whispered in this dogs ear, "I have a little job for you."    We never saw this dog again or any other dog again who was willing to just come hang out with us for an afternoon.  It was a dog on an errand from God.