Farewell to Chelsea B

Hard does not describe the challenge of deciding whether and when to have your precious pet put to sleep, but that's the decision with which we have been struggling over the past few weeks.

Although we deeply believe that putting your faithful pet/companion to sleep before their suffering gets too great is the final act of love which you can bestow upon your pet, making that decision is heart-wrenching.

Let me tell you about Chelsea. When we learned in 1993 that we were going to be stationed in Panama and that we needed to leave our two 18-year-olds, David & Christy, in the states when we went overseas, our hearts were torn to shreds.

Knowing our struggle, and that Christy's chihuahua, Kodak, had recently died, two very faithful friends, Valerie & Kenny Mercy, (shown above with Chelsea last October) gave us a "fuzzy farewell to Panama present" in the form of a 9-week-old, golden-red, long-haired chihuahua. At our request, they gave us a girl from their puppy's litter. Kenny's task was to spoil her and turn her into a lap dog for us. He did a great job!

At the time, I was teaching at St. Pius X School in El Paso, and our new puppy's name came about in honor of good times there. For two years some of us teachers had gone for Happy Hour on Friday afternoons (for Diet Cokes, of course) to debrief from the stresses and share the joys and victories of the week. One year, we went to Chelsea Street Pub, and the year before that we'd gone to Bombay Bicycle Club, hence the name: Chelsea B. Chelsea might be the only Baptist dog named for two pubs!

For almost 15 years, Chelsea B has been a wonderful part of our family, but for over a year she has been dealing with cancer, which has turned into a large growth on her right lip and across the gums in her toothless mouth, which made eating her finely-chopped food and lapping water into the left side of the mouth, away from the cancerous growths, an ever-greater challenge for her. The spring is now missing from her step, the glimmer has dimmed in her eyes, and so early tomorrow morning we have an appointment with our wonderful vet, Annie Sostrin, who has walked this cancer journey with Chelsea and us, to set Chelsea free.

Tonight, for the first time in weeks, Chelsea ran into the house from her late-night walk, through the living room and down the stairs to bed. My heart broke, thinking, "The bounce is back the night before we put her to sleep?" But I've decided it was a gift -- one last romp, and then she'll be romping the streets of puppy heaven.

Note to my theologian friends: if you are considering writing and asking me to show you in scripture where it talks about puppy heaven, I have just one suggestion for you: Don't even go there with me right now!

And to end, a humorous story: A few weeks ago, Christy was telling her little Jon (now almost 2 1/2) that "Bapaw" and Grandma were going to be there to visit for the weekend.

Jon's response: "Bapaw, Grandma?"

Christy: "Yes!"

Jon: "And Sushi?"

Not understanding "Sushi", Christy asked him to repeat it, so Jon said, "And Sushi?"

Christy indicated she still didn't understand, so Jon said again, "Sushi!" as if to say, "Come on, Mom, you know what I mean!" at which time it dawned on her that Jon meant Chelsea.

And so to our little Chelsea B (aka "Sushi"), "Thank you for 15 great years of tummy rubs, walks, paw taps on the hand in the middle of the night for a head rub, snuggles in Neil's "Big Man" chair chosen because it fit you and him, and wonderful companionship. We love you, we truly thank God for you, and we will miss you!"


P.S. A little theological encouragement from friends who minister in New York. Emrys Tyler, husband of Sara (one of my former Fuller student wives) who read the blog early this morning, sent this excerpt from an article Emrys had written in response to the question, "Do Pet's Go to Heaven?" Thanks, Sara & Emrys!!

The scriptures tell us that the Lord will create "new heavens and a new earth," that the old earth and heaven which we live in now will we washed away (Revelation 21:1-5).

When scripture says "new heavens and new earth," everything within heaven and earth is included. So we may expect that maples, daffodils, hedgehogs, mockingbirds, and yes, even domestic pets will be re-created in the new creation. Just like Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15 that Christians will be given new bodies, bodies of glory rather than withering earthly bodies, I suspect that the new creation of glory will look somewhat different from the creation we see now. Maybe that means our parakeets will have fantastic plumage of shifting colour; maybe our Labradors will have barks that sound like small symphonies; maybe our hamsters will be big enough to cuddle up with, like giant teddy-bears. Who knows? In any case, I think pets may be in heaven.

My question: will we have to scoop cat litter in heaven?

Great Visit!

March was a busy month, going to Sacramento twice and San Diego to see our "babies" and our grandbabies, and for me (Patty) it included a trip to Ft. Worth to visit our good friend, Ellen. Van & Betty, two of our other Panama Crew gals, also flew in for a weekend of talking, laughter, and tears. It was a time to encourage our Ellen, who has been through a year that included breast cancer for her and the unexpected death of her husband, Mike, just before Christmas.

Ellen and LouAnn, her sister, took us to the Ft. Worth Stockyards, where Betty and I each got to "ride" dear old Pecos Bill.


And of course, at the airport before returning home, I couldn't resist buying a Texas Longhorn for Jon, complete with long, low "Mmoooooo", a sound which I'm sure endears me to the heart of his parents!

A Visit with Mea!

You all know how rare it is to have time with our Mea, David's beautiful daughter. She and Pam were in San Diego with David for Easter, so we headed south from a great Easter weekend with Chris & family to San Diego for some time with David & Mea.

We went to the Reuben S. Fleet Space Museum in Balboa Park, where we had a wonderful time exploring the hands-on exhibits and seeing the most wonderful underwater creature movie on IMAX. Wow!


After a great dinner at Pat & Oscar's, David & Mea took on the challenge of teaching Grammy to jam!!

Easter

What a special Easter we had this year, celebrating in Sacramento with Chris, Rich & Jon and joining my sister, Merrilyn, Jack, and their daughter, Kelli, Bryan & Audrey for Easter brunch, along with some of Bryan's family. Being together is rare, so it is deeply treasured.

It's always fun to watch children hunt for Easter eggs, open them, and find treasures. Jon's greatest delight was probably playing with a balloon -- the simplest things in life are so often the best!



This was the weekend we also tried to teach Jon how to use chopsticks. In truth, we were using them, and he decided to give it a try all by himself. One way or another, those chow mein noodles got into his little mouth!