Joy was born and adopted into our family when she was about 8 weeks old.
She was very small. She was so small they photographed her sitting in a teacup. Her Daddy was only 2 1/2 pounds when he was full grown. We were told Joy would not shed hair. Her Yorkie Daddy and her Yorkipoo Mommy were said to be the kind of dogs that wouldn’t shed much at all. As I stood holding the little pup she left shiny black hair all over the top of my shirt. Ha…… Sure she wouldn’t shed!
We brought Joy to our home. Beth became her owner. Beth was supposed to take care of her but I was so used to tending to small ones that I felt an immediate urgency to take care of this tiny little dog. Joy was so small we had her sleep in a box that once held Sprite cans so there was less chance of her being crushed when she slept in my bed beside me. It was her first night with us and I knew she was probably lonely.
The next day we had to go away. We still didn’t want her to be lonely but we had to purchase things we were going to need like a collar, a leash, and dog food. This was a whole new adventure for us picking out a fresh new puppy to call our own.
We had dogs other people didn’t want before and those dogs all had severe problems. We found out why the other owners didn’t want those other dogs. One of them attacked the birds we had trying to eat the birds and it also didn’t care for obeying the owners so it was apt to bite people. That dog had to go quickly. Then there was the dog that about left a scar on Bob’s face. One other dog was given to us with so many health problems that we were going to have to spend a lot of money on the old dog’s care before we had a chance to fall in love with it and it also was so old the children weren’t able to play with it. If you are going to give an old sick dog away please warn the new family in advance and consider the fact that it’s probably not best to give such a dog to a family with small children.
Now we got Joy the little black 3/4 Yorki & 1/4 Poo dog. We asked the neighbor woman to take care of Joy while we went to the store. We didn’t even have a kennel for her yet. Olivia was happy to watch Joy for us.
When we got back home Olivia let us use her hamster cage. She found that the hamster cage was plenty big enough to hold our new treasure.
Joy was so small you could hardly see her if she got underfoot. I almost trampled on her many times. One time I was walking out of the kitchen going into the family room while Joy was leaving the hallway entering the same spot of the family room traveling into the same area where I was going. Sure enough I didn’t see Joy and she didn’t see me and the end of my foot caught the small body of the little dog. To my surprise Joy went flying across the family room towards the front door.
Have you ever seen your Joy go flying across a room? I was quite upset. I didn’t want my Joy hurt.
Since I started out mothering Joy the way I did Joy thought I was her own treasure. She sort of followed me wherever I went and she loved being petted. No wonder small dogs were used as lap dogs. I wanted to get my work done but it wasn’t easy with this little dog wanting my attention all the time. I realized that it was time to let Beth take on her responsibility of taking more care of Joy because I had already tended to small children plenty of times. It just didn’t seem right for me to take on the full responsibility of a dog now.
Beth worked with her dog so well. Even though Joy could attach to any kind person easily she started to attach herself to Beth. Beth dutifully took on each and every responsibility tending to her new dog.
Bob decided he wanted a dog, too. His own dog was what he had to have. We found out that Joy had a half sister. Her half sister would have the same little Yorki Daddy but a different Mommy. We decided that a Yorki-Maltese would be just fine.
Bob had named Joy after his favorite song called Joy to the World. Jason named the next dog when he found out we called the first dog JOY JOY more often than just calling her Joy. Jason said if we already had a Joy Joy our next dog should become Happy Happy. I had no idea there was a strange cartoon show that had a Happy Happy and a Joy Joy in it so the next dog was called Happy. The original owner named her Sassy but we didn’t want a Sassy dog. Ha……. She was rather Happy and Sassy so I guess there may be something to the power of names given.
Joy & Happy were born 6 months apart. Joy liked having Happy around. She now had a companion for when we went away from the house.
Beth never did like it if someone was lonely. I guess Beth was made to consider other people’s loneliness. She’s always had a heart that cared about that.
Joy & Happy were to be 13 years old this year. Happy started getting pretty sick almost 2 years ago. Happy was diagnosed with some sort of respiratory disorder. It wasn’t pleasant watching her go through breathing problems and bathroom problems and troubles with vomiting.
Beth ended up caring for Happy and becoming Happy’s owner because Bob was just too young to take on the full responsibility back when we first got Happy. Bob always cared for both dogs but he was just too young to want to tend to their every need instead of doing things young boys wanted to do 13 years ago. By the way he has his own dogs now. J J
Beth kept taking Happy to see the Veterinarian. She gave the dog medicine and helped me take care of the dogs when she was home.
Last April we found a home where some loving people said they’d take care of our sick little Happy because it was getting to be a major issue to continue cleaning up after Happy and to see her not be able to run any longer. Beth had prayed asking God to keep her from having to put Happy down or anything like that. Beth knew it was best for Happy and our household to have Happy be taken away but she didn’t want to do it herself. She told me she had talked with God about taking care of the problem for her. God took care of the problem.
This last April Happy was given to the family that said they would take her even though she had been so sick for so long. We left them money for food and for Veterinarian care for it was quite possible Happy would need help again before long.
Beth and Joy mourned heavily for Happy. I felt sadness, too. I was not as attached to the dog as her half sister and her master but I did care for Happy. It took a little while for Beth to get over the loss of Happy. We both cried but of course Beth and Joy cried even more than I did.
Joy cried the most of all. Joy had lost her greatest happiness in life. There were times that she went looking for her happiness by leaving the property. It wasn’t normal for Joy to leave like that but she did. She was so lost.
Joy’s life had been turned upside down. She is still comforted if someone is in the house but if we are ever gone for more than a few minutes or if she sees us leaving she goes into little fits of whining.
She was separated from the one she loved most and then she was seeing other people she cared for leaving her.
It rends the heart to talk about this because I know the pain of being separated from those you care about. Many people know how sad this is.
It’s taken time but Joy is doing better. Look! It’s been over three months and Joy is still showing signs of missing the one she loves.
If you lose someone you love and you’ve never been through this kind of loss before don’t expect everything to get better instantly. It usually doesn’t happen that way.
I don’t know if Joy will ever be able to handle times of being alone now. She is already an older dog and she has bad teeth and eyes. She has to learn to be alone sometimes because we really can’t take her everywhere. She is adjusting.
No, I don’t plan on getting another dog for her. I know that is what a lot of people do but all of those people don’t have allergies to certain animals. I found out that Joy isn’t a dog that causes my eyes to get watery like Happy did but I don’t let Joy sleep with me any longer. The fact that Joy doesn’t sleep in my bed helps the allergy problem a lot. If she does get on the couch we have a blanker there that can be washed easily so the hair isn’t left on the couch causing me problems. I found that the dirtier the dog is the worse the allergies are. Happy seemed to be a dirtier dog than Joy was. I don’t want to take chances with another indoor dog if I don’t have to.
The dog is important but I’ve always tried to teach my children that animals should never become more important than humans. It is a pet peeve of mine to see people treat animals better than people. I sincerely don’t think God planned for humans to serve animals. Yeah, I get some slack for my personal feelings on that matter. If you’ve ever met someone that makes animals more important than humans you may understand how something seems out of whack if they go overboard with this behavior.
I started wrting about Joy losing her Happiness because of the way I’ve watched Joy go through this painful process of losing her half sister.
The nice things about dogs is they do show so much care and love. They can even hurt a lot like we do.
In Proverbs it is said that a sluggard can learn by watching the ants. Ants are dutiful little insects that carry loads that look too heavy for them to carry. I believe we can learn from everything around us.
We can look at the way an animal like Joy attached herself to caring for and receiving care from her sister so much that when her sister was taken away she mourned. She didn’t get over it in a day’s time. She didn’t forget about her loved one in a month’s time.
So many people go through the process of losing a spouse or another family member and it seems as though other people think the mourning process ends in a month or two. I don’t believe there can be a time limit placed on the time it takes to really mourn the one you love.
I still think of my grandfather and sister that died in 1975. I haven’t forgotten about my son that died in 1983. I have not forgotten my husband that left this earth in 2002. I don’t think of each of them every day and I don’t build a memorial to help me keep from doing the things I must do even though they are no longer here but they are not totally forgotten.
I have not mourned as severely over them as I once did. I do feel a certain amount of sorrow when I think of how great it seems it would be if Sue could be here to see my children and grandchildren and how nice it would have been for her to see her own and to be here for her own but I accept that which I certainly cannot change and know must not be changed.
It works the same way for all of those loved ones that have left us. We strive to go on accepting our lives without them.
There are few things we can say to people that have lost loved ones. If we’ve been through our own set of mourning we know it’s a very sensitive time and it’s possible that even words that are shared with a good heart may not hit someone just the right way. If we haven’t suffered the same kind of loss they are suffering we know there is even less we can say because we really don’t know what it’s like to go through what they are going through.
Some things that I now think may be very helpful are to encourage them to rest instead of run. Encourage them to be around people and things that help make them happy but also let them know it’s okay to have some quiet times. Let them know they can call on you any time if that is something you know you can handle. Let them know you will pray for them asking God to help them every time He brings it to your mind. Maybe the Lord will help you find ways to reach out to them. It’s not easy to know what to do to help brighten their day but if you pray asking the Lord He may just let you have a special card to send their way at just the right time.
Keep loving Jesus and hang in there!