Brady

It was 10 years ago we got our dogs Abby and Brady. They were our kids before we had kids. They are the best dogs and we have so many fun memories with them.

On September 2nd, we had to say good-bye to our sweet dog Brady. It was one of the most difficult things we have had to do for a while. Many people probably don't understand that. But he was a member of our family and has been a part of our daily lives for the last 10 years.

This last week, I create a photo book of all our pictures and memories of Brady over the last 10 years. I loved putting it together and can't wait until I get it in the mail. In the book, I chose to focus more on the fun times and not so much the emotions of having to say good-bye. But there are a couple "tender mercies" surrounding the last week of his life that I have come to realize that I want to write down.

First, I had been doing some video taping of Brooklyn recently and so the video camera had been out on the kitchen counter. One night Craig saw it and for some reason thought to video Brady. And I am grateful that he did that because now we have a video of Brady walking around happy and his normal self the last couple days of his life. A tender mercy that we will be reminded of every time we watch that video.

From the day Brady showed signs of being sick to the day we said good-bye was only 9 days. Even more sudden was finding out it was cancer and that we probably only had another month or two with him which in the end only ended up being 2 days. After the initial grief of losing Brady, thoughts of anger tried to creep in. Anger from the idea that we didn't get the time with Brady that we thought we still had. But then Craig's brother said something to him that I have thought about a lot. He mentioned that Heavenly Father knows us so well and only gives us what we can handle. Perhaps there was a reason behind the timing of it all. And that is where the tender mercy comes in. Katelyn was only 2 weeks old when Brady died. How much more difficult it would have been had this whole event happened even just a few weeks earlier. It would have been a damper on the excitement we felt with adding Katelyn to our family. Instead we were able to fully celebrate her birth without having to worry about feelings of loss. So perhaps, Heavenly Father had a hand in allowing Brady to live long enough and symptom free for that reason. And for that I am grateful.

The last week of Brady's life, he got a walk every night. Things have gotten more and more busy as our family has grown and our kids have gotten older. So our dogs haven't always gotten as many walks as they would have probably liked. But when we found out Brady was sick, Craig made it a point to take him out every night for a walk. And the night before he died, I volunteered to take Brady out on his walk. And that is my tender mercy. Brady was happy and excited and pulling me on the walk the whole time like he normally does. I am grateful for the memory of that one last walk that I got to take with him.

The last page of the book I made about Brady said this......

So if the saying is true that "all good dogs go to heaven....then we have do doubt that is where Brady is because he was more than just a good dog. He was a GREAT dog!!