Moosey Goosey

Here's a small tribute to a great dog. Our 7 year-old Chocolage Lab, Moose, was hit and killed by a car on Saturday, January 24. He did have one weakness - he liked to wander, and that's exactly what got him into trouble this time. Keith was outside late Saturday afternoon washing his truck, and Moose got out of the house with all the kids and people coming and going through the garage. It was just one of those times when too many things were going on at once - a pipe broke in the garage, and Keith got distracted with the water coming in, I was leaving to go meet with the bishop, Keith's brother Kyle stopped by, my parents were coming to watch the kids so that Keith and I could go to his company party, and then my brother and his wife and our nephew Jack stopped by. We didn't even notice Moose was gone until later that evening, after Keith and I had already left. My mom and dad took the kids and Kyle out to dinner, and it was when my mom said to Tyler, "Let's take the rest of your hamburger home to Moose," she was like, wait a minute, I don't remember seeing Moose when we left. Sure enough, when they got back to the house, he wasn't there. So, my dad and Kyle went to look for him, but at this point we figure he'd already been gone a few hours. No luck in searching for him. When Keith and I got home, Keith went looking again. Then Sunday morning when he still hadn't shown up, I went out searching, and no luck. As I was getting myself and the kids ready for church, we got a call from somebody who lives right off Hewitt and Hwy. 9. They said Moose was lying in the snow and that he was dead. At first when I saw the caller id and noticed it wasn't somebody I knew, I was thinking somebody had him (alive) and that we'd be able to go pick him up. I was not prepared for what I heard. Keith was up at the church for a meeting, so I called him and told him the news and to have him go pick Moose up. The house he was found at is right off a busy road, so we figured he was hit by a car. Also, there wasn't a scratch on him except the lower half of his body looked a bit swollen. It had also snowed a little that night, and there were no tracks in the snow, so we figured it must've happened earlier in the evening before the snow fell. We just hope he didn't lie there suffering for too long.

I had said a prayer that morning that we'd be able to find him. Even though the outcome wasn't what we were expecting, I'm so glad we were able to find him, know what happened, and be able to say good bye. He could've so easily been lying in a ditch somewhere, and we would've never known what happened. We buried him in the grove of cedar trees behind our house. It's a peaceful little area where you can hear the creek running. We were all very upset about his sudden passing, especially Austin. I don't know what breaks my heart more - the fact that it happened or seeing my kids cry and be upset and try to explain that Moose is in heaven with Heavenly Father and Jesus and Duke. I think the chorus to the song that plays first on our blog is fitting to how we feel...