Part 6 - Goodness and Mercy

When Hannah and Josiah were born,

Tov and Kessy welcomed them to our home.

They were quite good with the children

as they were with everyone - just wanting

a throw of the ball or a show of affection.

And of course, the kids loved them

and Hannah refered to them as her dogs.

This picture was taken in May 2006.

You can see the age around Tov's eyes

and muzzle.

They were 14 then and had begun to slow down.

I knew they were old when Kessy lost interest in

her favorite game,

and Tov often stumbled.

With the exception of the pictures taken two years later

in May 2008 that I posted on my Memorial Day blog,

these are the best pictures I have of them in their

final days.

They were two months short of being 16,

when it came time to say a final

"Goodbye"

on June 20, 2008.

To help us with our grief,

we made a small memorial garden

in which we buried their "ashes".

The kids each placed stones around

the site and we even said a prayer

thanking God for the blessing of having

Tov and Kessy for so long.

"Surely the goodness and mercy of God will follow me all the days of my life,

and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."

Part 5 - Goodness and Mercy

In December 1998,

I married Theron and we became Roses

and moved again.

Looks like I woke the dogs from a nap.

Here they are with me.

And here with a previous neighbor.

Tov looks comfy.

Part 4 - Goodness and Mercy

Remember the 'Blizzard of '93' ?

Tov and Kessy ventured out to see what was going on.

The snow was piled up so high

it looked as if Kessy could have jumped right over the fence.

My brother helped me pour this concrete slab

to cut down on mud at my back door.

Tov and Kessy had a bed inside the garage

and this doghouse, which use to be Amos'.

I had also built a shelter for them to get out of the sun

during the day, since there were no mature trees on my land.

In the summer of 1994, we moved to Marietta.

My dad built new doghouses for "K" and "T"

and they actually went into the right houses!

They loved being there with Madge

and my new job allowed me to be home with them more.

Here you can see what a cuddler Kessy was.

Snow again!

And the chase is on

with Madge's service dog/companion, Murray.

Even though they loved to run,

Tov and Kessy were very obedient, easy to train dogs.

Kessy's favorite sport was "ball"

and Tov tried to keep up with her.

Tov loved a good game of tug-of-war

with Kessy.

Part 3 - Goodness and Mercy

So, who do you think was the leader of this pack?

No, it wasn't Tov.

Kessy was the smartest and the fastest.

In dogdom, that made her the benevolent leader,

caring for her sibling and keeping him in line.

They had a spacious backyard in which to run.

As sheepdogs do, one would crouch low and

give the other "the eye", or stare,

and then take off in a glorious chase.
In the picture above, they were chasing each other

around the bush.

All of my bushes and baby trees.had to have little fences around

them to protect them from being trampled or chewed.

I learned that lesson the hard way.

This was a real action shot!

Part Two - Goodness and Mercy

As a single person living alone,

it was nice to come home from work

and have Tov and Kessy there waiting for me.

I did not watch T.V.

I watched my puppies play,

cuddled with them,

and cared for them.

They were so small at first, I could bathe them both in

the kitchen sink.

But it wasn't long until they outgrew that.

Here they are sleeping on a rug together after a bath.
Don't they look sweet!

The Story of Goodness and Mercy

It all began in the fall of 1992.

I was living in the town of Euharlee (in Cartersville).

My Irish Setter/Lab mix had passed away at the age of 10 or 11.

I told myself I would not get another dog.

Until I saw a picture of some homeless Australian Shepherd mix puppies

in the local newspaper.

I could not get that picture out of my mind.

But when I called the Bartow Animal Shelter, it seemed I was too late.

The puppies were gone they said.

Mournfully, I went to the shelter anyway, at their suggestion

to see if there was another dog I might adopt.

After looking at all the dogs, I knew none of them were for me.

Imagine my joy when on going to the puppy room, I saw in the corner

a litter of six Australian mix pups huddled in a crate.

I was surprised that in spite of what I was told, there they were.

And that had I not gone anyway, I would have missed this.

When they let the little ones out, two stayed in the crate next to each other

just looking at me.

I don't recall when I first started thinking that two dogs would be better than one,

but there at that moment I knew that they were the ones for me.

Back then it was only $35 dollars to adopt a puppy

and that included their first set of shots and a spay/neuter certificate.

I had been reading a book by Philip Keller on Psalm 23.

In it he referred to goodness and mercy as God's watchdogs.

I looked up the Hebrew and found "tov" and "chesed".

I named the dark colored male Tov (goodness).

The lighter colored female, I named Chesed (mercy).

The "ch" being a hard "H" sound made it difficult to say

every time calling a dog, so I gave her the nickname Kessy.

(I will post more of this story over the next week as I remember with fondness these little gifts from God that I enjoyed for almost 16 years.)

Memorial Day Remembering

Memorial Day - last year. There are no words for what I feel as I look at these pictures.