I had planned to write about our last two months of 2018, months ago. I couldn’t bring myself to do it, not at first, because I couldn’t write about our loss.

Just after Thanksgiving, while visiting Myrtle Beach, South Carolina we lost our wonderful little friend. Teddy Bear’s heart just gave out and we had to put an end to his suffering that was only going to get worse, much worse.

Diane and I have been mourning and dealing (two different things) with the loss since that sad and awful day.

We have lost his wake up kisses.

We have lost the early morning walks, sometimes as the sun is coming up.

We have lost the cheerful, very enthusiastic greeting at the door when we return from anywhere.

We have lost the sock stealing, the kibble crunching, the chin on the knee at dinner time.

We have lost our hiking friend, who always kept his nose to the ground.

We have lost watching our friend visit our DCMR neighbors who he knew would hand him a treat.

We have lost our rabbit alarming friend, who loved jumping on the dash, opening the curtains and watching the world go by one squirrel or bird at a time.

We have lost so much more.

We are left with a Teddy Bear shaped hole in two hearts. A painful hole that can never be completely healed, only patched by memories and will become less painful over time.

We found Teddy Bear. No, we rescued Teddy Bear on Thanksgiving Weekend in 2010, and we lost him almost eight years to the day later. We are truly thankful for the time we had together.

I prayed so hard that his time with us would be longer…..