Good Friday with Mabel

Hannah died in February and even though we knew that day would come our hearts were broken. Our beloved companion, with Phillip for ten years. A hole remains in our family and we think of Hannah every day. 

And we also knew, well before Hannah died, that we would have a new space in our family, and that while we didn’t want to adopt another dog or pretend that we could fill the hole of Hannah, we did want to foster a dog when the opportunity came along. To provide temporary home for, perhaps, a complicated dog – we've had a variety of those in our lives. 

Ten days ago a dog rescue called us because they needed a pet-free home in a hurry. 
A very pregnant dog had been found, abandoned or lost, and they didn’t want her to give birth at the shelter. 

We hadn’t wanted our home to be pet-free, but only because Hannah is dead, did we have an opportunity, a new beginning, so Mabel came to stay with us. And on Good Friday she had nine puppies – talk about death to life!

We keep getting the question “how many puppies will you keep?” or “Will you keep Mabel?” and, even though I trust this will be harder as the weeks go by, we say no. Because Mabel taught us how important it is to be available. And we will say goodbye to these ten dogs in time, and this ending will create a home for a new beginning.

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