Brizzy's Rainbow Day

It is with great sadness and a broken heart that I have to write what I never wanted to write ... that yesterday we sent our sweet Brizzy over the Rainbow Bridge. His spirit was strong but his body was too weak, and the cancer won. But it didn't win out quickly! It was a fight to the finish, not just by us but by this magnificent, gentle, strong-willed woof. I have learned some powerful lessons from him about strength and the will to keep going, and about loving others so much that you want to stay with them despite pain and difficulties and a body that can't cooperate like it used to.

Sometimes we are lucky to be blessed with special individuals who come into our life and touch us in ways we never thought possible. Brizzy has enriched me in just such a way. He taught me deep lessons about unconditional love and how to really enjoy the quiet, peaceful moments in life. He taught me how to sacrifice for another being and to give up my own wants for the wants of another. He gave Ruth the most sacred gift of all: what it feels like to be a mother. She who is a wonderful soul and who has longed for a family, but who hasn't had the privilege of being married and bearing children (yet), had this wonderful dog to fill the gap. Even though he was a dog and not a human child, Ruth loved him and cared for him as if he were her child. They had a very special bond, those two, and it was a privilege to be a part of it in my small way. Mostly I was the sister and the "alternate mom," which is a pretty good role for someone as independent as I.

Brizzy shared with me the gift of living in the moment and boy did he have a thing or two to teach me about enjoying FOOD! (Not that I needed that lesson - hah.) And best of all, I who have no children either was gifted with the opportunity to love and sacrifice for another living being, and to give up my own selfish wants for the wants of another.

Ruth and I will be okay. Though our hearts are hurting and we will miss him desperately, we are being blanketed in a warm cocoon of love and support from you: our family and friends and ward family, and it is seeing us through. The Lord promised Ruth in a blessing that the Comforter would come ... and He has. But what I never expected is that He would come through feelings of peace but ALSO through the service of all of you. We are both overwhelmed by it.

I am so glad that Brizzy enjoyed what he could right up to the end: Wednesday night he ate two hamburgers PLUS his regular dish of dog food, and Thursday morning he had an entire pint of Ben & Jerry's Peach Ice Cream (he ate EVERY BIT OF IT with gusto) PLUS he ate almost a full bowl of dog food, and on his way to the vet's office he ate a ton of peanut butter. In fact, his final acts were to let us pet him and cry over him and look at us both with big, I love-you eyes, and THEN try to finish off as much of the peanut butter as we would allow him. He ate half the bottle before Dr. Edmonds told us we'd better stop (it could have come back up when all his organs relaxed - euww). So when he crossed that rainbow bridge, it was with his very favorite taste in the whole wide world on his lips -- peanut butter.

I would like to add a quote and a poem I found which I really liked:

"Dogs are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring - it was peace." ~Milan Kundera~

THE CREATION

When God had made the earth and sky
the flowers and the trees,
He then made all the animals
the fish, the birds and bees.

And when at last He'd finished
not one was quite the same.
He said, "I'll walk this world of mine
and give each one a name."

And so He traveled far and wide
and everywhere He went,
a little creature followed Him
until its strength was spent.

When all were named upon the earth
and in the sky and sea,
the little creature said, "Dear Lord,
there's not one left for me."

Kindly the Father said to him,
"I've left you to the end.
I've turned my own name back to front
and called you dog, My friend."
~Author Unknown~

Goodbye Sweet Brizzy -- I am so grateful for the knowledge I possess which teaches me that there IS a Spirit World and I will see you again. Run free -- Run fast -- and eat joyfully!

WHOOO-HOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

YES YES YES!!!! We heard from our vet today and he told us that the pathologist found NO CANCER in Brizzy's biopsy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WHEEEEEEE!!!

Who says prayers don't work?!

Of course he did add the caveat that it's possible there's something deeper in Brizzy's bone that wasn't reached, so we're not totally out of the woods yet. BUT we choose to think that the Lord has decided we could keep our little woof around for a while longer. He'll be on strong antibiotics for another week and then we'll see what's next ... another biopsy, or something else.

But for today ... TODAY is a GOOD DAY!!!!!

We soldier on

Well there are lots of other things I want to write about (Super Saturday will be next!) and oh my goodness! I'm really behind the times in creative stuff I can do with this blog (I can't believe some of the cool stuff I'm seeing on you, my friends' blogs), but right now our sweet little Brizzy is still very heavily on my mind. So here's a quick update before I head on home (and to bed):

We haven't gotten The Word yet on the biopsy - still waiting. We are both hopeful and anxious and I'm not sure if "no news is good news" as Ruth keeps saying, or if no news means "We are reticent about calling and giving you the bad news." We keep hoping for good news though. The Briz has been given a pain reprieve thanks to all of the wonderful prayers offered on his behalf, the power of the Priesthood, and the "quiet" he's been forced to endure (lots of staying in the house, no running, jumping, etc.). Even getting into the car for some rides has been easier thanks to our wonderful Home Teacher, Brother Bennett who came over and cut some board down for us to use as a ramp from ground to car seat. Ruth glued carpet down onto one of the boards and it's worked like a charm.

Ever since last week when everyone began praying in earnest for Brizzy and some of Heavenly Father's power was offered on his behalf, the little woof has acted almost like his normal self. It was evident the pain had receded and he felt better. He even wanted to play. It's been such a gift and I have felt deeply grateful. Today he's hurting a bit again, though not too bad (I hope). He certainly did attempt to exert his independence though when I got home! Hah. He has had enough of our crazy rules. Here he is -- Brizzy making a statement:

"Hmpfh, make me stay in that house any longer?! I don't think so! I'll just show you by going into MY house to work on my basement for a while." (Notice how a tree has taken over the next-door apartment? Gotta pull that baby outa there someday ...)
"Okay, let's get some good dig on!"
"And I'm just going to sit here for a minute ..." (you can't see him very well, but he's in there) ...
"And it's hard with this darn foot, but I'll just dig a little bit more because I want to."
"Okay, enough of that. NOW I'm going around to the back yard and don't you try to stop me!"
"And to REALLY make a point, I'm sitting myself down right here and not budging."
Even when I tried to coax him with "Go for a ride?!" He wasn't havin' it. He just sat there and looked at me as if to say, "I dare you." I finally got him with food though. He's always up for "Want a treat?!" (Thank goodness for peanut butter and carrots!!!!!) And THEN we went for that ride. Cowboy was going manic -- we had to.

A side note: You may think Ruth and I are a little crazy, but we've chosen to use everything we can think of at our disposal, to help Brizzy. We have even visited a natureopathic (is that a word?) healer-lady who reads irises, and who gave us a very interesting regime of homeopathic products to follow. AND I wire-wrapped two stones for the Briz to wear. See this?

That's amethyst and lapis lazuli. Both are healing stones and have very positive vibrations. Okay I know, that's just waayyy weird (to some). But hey, everything on this earth is made up of the same protons, neutrons and electrons, true? It makes perfect sense to me that the electrons in stones could vibrate to the same frequency as some of our cells and generate energy. Why not? In the end, isn't that how we utilize food energy? At any rate, I agree with the iris-lady who said that the Lord has given us all the tools we need on this earth to take care of ourselves. I have learned that the power of prayer and the power of the Priesthood are the greatest of all and should be our main focus, but there's nothing wrong with utilizing some of these other tools as well. I plan to add rose quartz and citrine very soon, too. And you want to know something odd? I was recently drawn to all four of those stones (the two in the above picture and the two I'll be adding) at a recent gem show. I just had to get them. Who knows? Maybe it was a foreshadow of my need for them. Or maybe I just got lucky. All I know is I'm happy to add them to the arsenal. :-) Sweet Brizzy aside, I do love gemstones. I've always been drawn to them.