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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: HOPE (joyful, confident expectation in salvation) (03/05/15)
She should have eight more lives - or is that a stupid marketing ploy?

I wept and cuddled her while life escaped sighing out of her broken little boneless body.

Is she in Heaven? I can hope...

How could I know that her excessive hacking was due to a heart condition? I attributed it to the misery of nasty hairballs, and when the hacking was non-productive I just stroked her throat trying to help her.

Is she in Heaven? I can hope...

Great golden eyes that immediately turned black when our dog romped to and atop her resisting, cringing back, her exquisitely fluffy fox tail calling to every hunting instinct in his unreasonable jumping body . . .

Is she in Heaven? I can hope...


A spreading pool of what appeared to be blood - spreading wide, with cat feces staining the shower floor. Horrible, fearful the unknowing.

That night our little fuzz-ball came to me when I entreated her, and listlessly lay on my breast while I stroked her into a reluctant purr. She slowly, deliberately crept to my shoulder and regaled me unnervingly with bizarre stomach rumbles.

Is she in Heaven? I can hope...

She returned to the pillow above my husband's head, where she sighed herself to sleep. We both couldn't sleep. We watched her through the night to ensure she was still breathing.

Is she in Heaven? I can hope...

Twelve years young - I anticipated her having us for at least twenty years. Her unique personality and playfulness had somewhat abated - all she wanted to do was eat and sleep, like me. She delighted copying me, squatting in her litter-box while I used the - well, you know.

Is she in Heaven? I can hope...


When she was younger she was insanely play-filled. She had us shrieking over her antics and howling with her tricks. A superb mouser. She wasn't vicious with the mice - she just played them to an exhausted death.

Is she in Heaven? I can hope...

We have been invaded by the little critters, but, surprisingly, Fifi totally ignored them. She had the "cattitude" that if the dog went after them, she didn't have to.

And when we got the dog - she snubbed us.

Is she in Heaven? I can hope...

Bilirubin - the ugly orange refuse spat from a decaying liver. That frightening scenario put us all into a frenzy of praying, hoping, praying, hoping until we were prayed out and wallowing in tearful hope. God does answer prayer - we hoped for His miracle.

Is she in Heaven? I can hope...

God did mercifully take her from us.


Fifi's veterinarian cheerfully supposed it was a simple urinary tract infection. My sister and I joyed in the answer to our hopeful prayer, and played with all the tails wagging in the waiting room. Hugged a lot of dogs that day . . .

Is she in Heaven? I can hope...



The tests showed a heart murmur had produced the violent hacking coughs. A sluggish thyroid contributed to her lack of play. But the mass on her liver awoke us to the pain she suffered. What a good little girl - uncomplaining and totally loving.

And so, I cuddled, nuzzled, blew warm breath into her incredibly fluffy fur. She didn't respond - her flank was very painful, she was scared, and almost humanly hysterical. I held her breathlessly gently in my shaking arms, quaking with the pity, the horror - the loss - as the injection was given, the yowling subsided. I couldn't stop kissing her, fondling her. I lifted her to my shoulder and I was so alarmed by her totally limp and lolling sweet head - her golden eyes draining to blue-white...

To a Christ possessed believer, the very thought of euthanasia is galling. Let the poor soul die as God wills. Don't jump the gun - don't second-guess God. But that works for sentient beings who have the choice to voice their hopes and fears. A cat is not given that blessing - all she can do is yowl in very real pain - and not understand why we can't fix it for her.

I must stop writing this. Three times I have concentrated on euthanasia, pros and cons, and if the Christian view envelops dying pets?

Three times I have tried to save my convoluted thoughts, and three times I have accidentally, most unfortunately deleted my final paragraphs.


Broken - and so am I
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Member Comments
Member
Date
C D Swanson 
03/13/15
Wow - I am so sorry for your devastating loss. Only those who have pets and love them know the anguish that comes from the last and final goodbye.

I have had many debates on this subject, pertaining to "heaven" and have had some people point to Ecclesiastes" and then others point to "Isaiah"...personally in my relationship with the Lord, I know He is a loving God and doesn't/wouldn't create such adorable little creatures to have it all end without continuing forward. I choose to believe, we will be reunited with our beloved pets in heaven. Until then, Jesus is tending to His flock of precious ones."

This was classically and hauntingly beautiful. Thanks for sharing your heart with us. I felt your hurt and mourned with you.

God bless you~
Noel Mitaxa 
03/14/15
Romans 8:19 describes the wordless strain of the whole creation as it awaits our full revelation as God's children. I'm sure that the love that our pets express towards us and evoke from us is yet another example of God at work. A sign that redemption is not just a process of God collecting souls on a salvation-belt - like some kind of cosmic gun-slinger - but a renewal of all that we enjoy; and so much more.
Verna Cole Mitchell 
03/15/15
You did an excellent job of demonstrating love for your pet and your hope in heaven for God's creatures. I've heard debates about animals going to heaven, but I've decided that while we hope we'll see them in heaven, we'll be so happy walking with Jesus, we'll never know then if they aren't there. I know how you feel because of my little poodles who moved on out away from pain.
lynn gipson 
03/16/15
Oh, so sad and so well descriptive in your own pain. My thoughts and prayers are yours. I have a cat, and they rule.

Very well done on what must have been so hard to write.

Many blessings..

And I too, believe there are pets in heaven.