Wednesday, December 11, 2013

KIOS Day 11 and Comfort & Joy

Today is Day 11 of the Kickin' It Old Skool Blog-A-Thon and today we are talking about
WHAT MAKES YOU WEEPY?
So... I already read through a bunch of the other participating bloggers posts for today and yep,
you can definitely count me in the majority of those admitting to be quite the cry baby!
Nature, kids, animals, music, writing, art, commercials, movies, tv shows, stories on the news,
You Tube videos, thinking about or being with my (adult) kids, my grandson, my mom,
my husband, my friends, my pets, babies, holidays, birthdays, slow dancing, gifts,
a happy moment, a joyous moment, a funny moment, a sad moment
(and ditto all of those for memories as well), weddings, deaths, births,
and pretty much everything in-between
can
make
me 
weep cry!
(although I rarely, if ever use the word "weep"...
to me "weeping" seems absolutely tragic, hopeless, uncontrollable, 
and honestly such a sad sounding word that just seeing or saying or writing the word "weep" 
can (yep, you guessed it!) make me tear up!
I have definitely had more than a few "weep" worthy experiences in my life, as we all have...
but I am taking today's query to be more "broad", as in not sharing a specifically terrible happening
which made you weep, but in general, what can bring a tear to your eye.

All of that being said, I will share with you what brought a tear (of grateful happiness) to my eye
about 11 minutes after getting out of bed this morning!
Hubby had to go into work super early, so he left my usual morning latte that he makes me/us in a thermal container so it might still be a bit warm for me when I woke up
(about 3 hours after he left). That in itself is pretty darn sweet,
but then he had to go and make it a tear inducing gesture by the addition of this sweet note:


yes, I am a very lucky woman
and no, he doesn't have any brothers (at least none who are like him, lol!)



And this week for Gallery 34 at 52 Photos Project, we are sharing our photos of
COMFORT AND JOY! (which also made me cry!)

I immediately thought of this photo I took a few days ago...


This is our sweet old boy Max lying near our tree. He "found me" years ago, all battered and bruised, filthy and smelly, eyes bleeding and tail broken, abandoned on a nearby highway. I loved him from the moment he went all belly-up for me to pet, and we have been together now for almost 13 years, through so many changes and difficulties and experiences both very good and very bad.
Aside from his initial sheer terror of men (which he eventually overcame with the help of several sweet loving males in our life), he has always been such a sweet, gentle, kind, happy-go-lucky soul. He was just born to be a dog, takes pleasure in every simple little thing, and (as my husband says) is just the most "stoic" guy-never complaining or "moody", no matter what is happening. As is normal for his advancing age, he has been slowing down quite a bit over the past 2 years, and has lost most of his sight, but is still happy and loving, enjoying short bursts of playtime with his two younger "sisters", performing his over 10 tricks, enjoying visits to the beach and (shortened) walks on a nearby trail, eating like a pig and doing his best to join in on the usual morning "sing (howl!)-a-long"!

In September, we noticed he had developed a terrible cough which was starting to compromise his (and our) sleep, so we took him to the vet for a check-up. He was quickly diagnosed with a terminal, inoperable heart tumor, and we were told to count every remaining day with him as a blessing, (which we always have!) because it could be months but more likely weeks or even days until his life would be taken by the tumor. Although we were deeply saddened by this news, we also know that he has already lived (happily & relatively healthy) to an age several years beyond the average lifespan of a Basset Hound (which is 11 years) and we are daily grateful for the gift of his presence and companionship in our lives. We just pray that when his time comes, it will be peaceful and we will be with him. (and, if it is not too much more to ask, that we will not have to make any difficult decisions about when that time would be).

10 days ago, he had a miscalculation coming down step #10 of the 14 he has to traverse daily to get to & from his bed in our room, and injured himself pretty badly. We always stick close to watch and assist him on the stairs, but that morning, I was walking just ahead of him, checking the temperature on my phone, when I heard his mournful cry and turned to find him sprawled and crying on the staircase landing. He had a rough few days, barely able to hobble around, with a few more yelps of pain when we would try to help him maneuver into position. (and yes, I feel extremely guilty about not being there as I should have been.)
But he still ate and went potty fine and was alert and responsive, if not less active and needing more rest
than usual. We knew that due to his heart tumor, a visit to the vet would not result in the ability for any positive action, other than pain pills which would just knock him out and possibly cause him to make his injury worse if he could not feel any pain and tried to do things he shouldn't do because he could not feel the pain!). So since there were no other signs of serious injury, we just kept him as quiet and comfortable as possible, not leaving the house or pretty much his side for a week. He is almost back to his normal self now, and for that, we are so very grateful. So this photo of him lying near our little cut-from-our-back-woods Christmas tree is truly an image of comfort and joy to me.


Wishing you happy tears and moments of comfort and joy.
Thanks for reading, see you tomorrow.
Happy Me-Laurie Z!













4 comments:

  1. I like happy tears...tears of joy...being moved deeply. I hadn't thought about the sadness of the word "weep" and then I smiled when you said just thinking about it made you cry. You are very tender hearted!

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  2. What a wonderful and thoughtful man, and a beautiful note. Sometimes I get teary when on Skype with my guy. And thanks for sharing your picture and story of Max, what a sweet looking dog!

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  3. both of these are wonderful stories!

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