thanksgiving mourning

if anyone needs a reminder of how quickly things can change, this is one of those posts. and...cue my tears.

anyone who knows me, knows that i come from/live with a family of animal lovers. we think things through and we fall extremely hard. we see animals for much more than what they are, we fall in love with their loyalty and quirkiness, we internalize their emotions, and appreciate the unconditional love they give. needless to say, losing a pet crushes us.

boy am i feeling crushed right now. in the very wee hours of thanksgiving morning we lost coco to a dog. we heard commotion, but didn't make it out to her in time and despite getting her to the vet as quickly as possible, the damage was done. ripp walked out of the vet with her collar in hand and a promise to call later to take care of the bill.

to make matters worse, the tags on the dogs showed that they belonged to a very, very dear friend. so not only am i so sad for coco and our family, i am sad for their family and the dog they said good-bye to later that morning.

and...we have one very lonely and agitated donkey. his actions the past two days tell me that he was scared very badly during the attack and that he is also grieving for her. this is the first time in his short life that he has ever been alone, and because we have no intention of bringing any other creature home to him, we are in the process of finding him a home.

they do say things come in threes.

despite all of this, i have much to be thankful for:

-my own little family who is pulling through this together. children who love like i do and can make me laugh and smile.

-my parents and my brothers family who spent thanksgiving day at our house. they helped with the dinner, distracted us and rolled right along with our emotions. and i think they were here a little longer than usual.

-my ripp who is able to take care of the dirty stuff and tries to protect me in the process. and for being tender-hearted and okay with showing it.

-my dear friend who cried right along with me into our coffee yesterday and for keeping us busy this weekend.

-a vet who didn't make us wait, who knew just what to say and do, and trusted a broken-hearted ripp to come back later.

-the 'ranch' while we had it. duke and coco have brought us all a lot of enjoyment, we only wish it hadn't ended so soon and under these circumstances.

-to all of you who read this blog. by writing this, i am hoping to lift some of the heaviness in my heart. this is my therapy.