Grace and mercy in loss

We lost our beloved little puppy Sprocket. God gave him to us for three short weeks, and he spent those three weeks extremely ill. We cared for him like he was a human child, spoon feeding him every two hours because he had stopped eating. He had lost 20% of his already frail self, and by the time we took him back to the vet again, he had fluid in his belly, the possibility of pneumonia, and he was extremely malnourished and dehydrated. The cause was a really bad case of roundworms, which infested his lungs and kept him from being able to absorb any nutrients. The day we put him to sleep was so sad. I don't think I have ever cried that much over the loss of a pet. I felt bad that we couldn't do more. We wanted nothing more than to help him and see him get healthy. We were all so heartbroken.

Dave said if the boys wanted to try again, we could go adopt another puppy. Knowing we had already paid the adoption fees and medical costs of Sprocket, and that the shelter makes no guarantees of health for their animals, we figured we would again incur the cost of adopting a new pet. Although the shelter has a 30 day exchange policy should your animal not work out, they didn't have any guarantees should your animal get sick or die.

With all our little hearts heavy and broken, we set out to another shelter to take a look at a sweet little puppy we saw on the website. When we got there and took him into the "Get to know you" room, we all INSTANTLY fell in love again. It really was magical. It was so apparent that God led us to this one, and that we wouldn't be with this one had it not been for Sprocket and what we went through with him.

We knew this was the one, so we headed to the front of the building to do the paperwork. We shared our story with the lady at the front desk, who immediately went to her supervisor to plead on our behalf for a free exchange. God completely exceeded our expectations, and they gave us the new puppy completely free! She even told me I could file a claim to try and recoop the medical expenses we incurred with Sprocket. I felt so overwhelmed by God's grace and mercy, even in such a small matter as this. God does care about little things, and He is the author of all our adventures.

So here we are again, except this time with a bumbling, over-enthusiastic, abounding in energy little two month old puppy, doing all the things puppies should do! He is a two month old Staffordshire mix. The vet we took him to for his free checkup said he is probably mixed with Lab. He has the most beautiful brindle coat, and is just oh-so-cute. We named him Magnum. The boys all wanted to name him after a gun, and I wanted to name him after some sort of food since he is brown. Well, turns out we both won. Magnum is a type of gun, and also a chocolate covered ice cream bar. Win. Win.

We are just loving these days with our puppy...his fat little self has already gained 5 lbs in the two weeks since he was admitted into the shelter until now. He is like carrying a ton of bricks! The boys absolutely adore him, Summer is loving having a new friend to play with, and we are all feeling abundantly blessed.