Today Is A Bad, Sad Day

We didn't want a dog. We thought it would be too much hassle.

I didn't want to clean - or step in - poop in the back yard. I didn't want to deal with fleas and worms. I didn't want things chewed up or holes dug. I didn't want to spend the money on food, vet and kennel.

But then this little puppy came along last spring.

Someone had abandoned him and his brother out in the country. Rescued by a woman who worked with my wife at a Beaumont pre-school, the little puppy was brought to school and won my wife's heart.

Sure, he chewed a little, cost us some money, jumped on the kids and pooped a lot, but he was a sweet little guy and a big part of our family. He loved to lie on our feet. He loved to race to the back of the yard and bark at God knows what.

And now he's gone.

Somehow, he escaped out of a hole in the fence. Either our dog, or our neighbor's dog, dug the hole, and he somehow got out of the neighbor's yard last night.

We frantically searched the neighborhood to no avail.

This morning, while taking my son, Curt, to school in Sour Lake, I saw something on the shoulder of State Highway 105. I quickly dismissed it, but on the way back, heading toward Beaumont, I decided just to check and rule it out.

My stomach dropped as I recognized his fuzzy little brown, white and black head. Whatever hit him surely caused violent, instantaneous death.

Calling the wife was hard, and trying to explain this to the kids will be harder, but it has to be done, sans the gory details. I also called the highway department, which hopefully will remove the mangled body before my wife and youngest son, Luke, head out to the elementary school to pick up Curt this afternoon.

With my dad's passing in January, our grief plate was already full, and now this.

But so go the ups, downs and cruelties of life. We'll probably get a new puppy, but not anytime soon. Jack will not easily be replaced.