Ten to eleven years ago our daughter, Joycie was showing a home, we have a family real estate business. Out popped this energetic ball of black and brown with white to boot, running around here to there. She was a pup with mange, clearly in need of a home. The prospective renter said she deserved a home, and Joycie was it. Joycie brought this girl home and we treated her and she was brought back to health.
We named this little gal, Coffee Belle. For she was just like a bolt or jolt of coffee...Not to mention her coloring was like coffee! Do any of you remember the old Andy hardy movie, Love Laughs at Andy Hardy? A darling movie from yesteryear, a lovely girl in the movie is named Coffee Smith. If you want to smile or laugh, I recommend this movie.
A loving and sweet dog, running and running and playing to and fro. Jem said it would be good to have a bigger dog now. Our others were more lap dogs at that time. Jem said when he was little he had one much like Coffee but it was a boy named "Thunder".
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Coffee, when she first arrived. Grace's feet.
Along came Buddy. He was a huge colossal ball of love. He dwarfed Coffee! They were friends. Buddy had been abused and was even scared of our kitties. My son in law would pet him but couldn't look at him while he pet Buddy or Buddy would run away. Oh if these fur angels could tell us what happened to them?
Edit: Buddy broke our hearts when he passed away suddenly in '16.
Buddy and Coffee.
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We had a huge scare with Coffee a year and a half ago...We almost lost her then. We were taking her to a vet who had prescribed her pain meds, making her bladder swell but she could not void. Horrible. Her eye is swollen here because it was determined she had glaucoma which we treated with drops. Can you believe vets recommend sometimes to just remove the eye? Would they say that to a human with glaucoma? When daily drops can be used?
The two above photos are of our Coffee when we got her home from a new vet we miraculously found that day rushing her from one vet to another viable one I miraculously found online right in our own backyard.
She was so very happy to be home. She is here even playing with the other fur angels after being very, very ill.
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Here (above) is our happy go lucky Coffee Belle so happy just a few months ago, she and the other fur angels here were having such a happy time out in the yard as I took my walk. This is Coffee, just so representative of her sweet personality. Sometimes I would call her my 'Sweet Po-tae-ta". She was more than just plump, she was so cute, she would wobble... and would clop-clop-clop around the house when she walked...Just so adorable. She loved to plop herself in on the edge of the pond and plop and plop herself down splashing like a little toddler in a baby pool. You just had to smile watching this!
I didn't know these shots would be the last, and I didn't know my last three bottle order of eye drops would be her last, I was already fretting that I needed more.
Week before last we noticed she was not doing that great but it was normal, just throwing up a little bit of clear matter, nothing out of the ordinary. She became worse and Sunday before last went outside. I knew we had a problem. Jem and I would go pet her and she was so precious...She wasn't feeling good but would wag her tail when we stooped down to pet our Coffee...I noticed her going to the pond and lapping up water as usual so I was not sure if she was getting better. We had to leave her with our youngest, Grace just for a little bit while we went out for an errand and I tell her "We'll be right back Coffee!" She smiled.
Later that afternoon, Grace called and said to get home, Coffee had followed her in and lay on her doggy bed progressively having a hard time breathing. We were pulling up right then and ran into the house. Our poor Coffee was having a hard time, I called the vet, to make a long story short, I did not want my baby suffering and Grace and Jem lifted her up in her bed, Grace finally losing it like a little girl (although a young woman) looking down at Coffee. We got Coffee in the back seat floor board part of the truck on her bed. We were exhausted but knew we had to get our pet to the vet in a farming community at least 45 minutes away. Our normal vet from the sister clinic was sending patients there, they were closed on Sunday.
The entire way there I just kept patting our Coffee, telling her You're a good, good dog, Coffee.. We love you Coffee...
Coffee Belle passed when we were almost there to the vet's office. We drive up to a beautiful farming vet facility to the carport. The young vet, a petite gal with a tshirt, jeans and cowboy boots came out, a stethescope was ran out to her we opened the door and you could tell Coffee had passed to the other side. The sweet vet listened for a heartbeat and I will never forget these images. She just said, I'm so sorry...she's passed. I just stood there in disbelief. All I could do was cry too like Grace and say...My baby.
The vet and the tech looked like they wanted to cry too...I told the vet we would take Coffee back home....She is here buried on our property. I miss her. We all miss her...
Our oldest daughter's neighbor who I also know texted this, it had ministered to her so much when her pet had passed away, those are tear drop marks on the page of her devotional there:
It says:
"God's peace is not an escape from reality. We are not transfixed or somehow mentally 'removed' from feeling pain or struggling...Rather, peace is an undergirding rock-solid foundation so that no matter the tears we cry or the sorrow we feel, deep down inside we know with an abiding assurance that God is with us. God is in control, and the joy of the Lord is going to emerge far greater than any depth of agony we may be experiencing."
In the days that pass, my heart is heavy, and sometimes I do cry and miss our Coffee-girl but I know Coffee is with God, either here, there or both, she is here, she is There. God's ways are not our ways...We don't totally understand the beauty of it all, but we know it's true.
When I volunteered at the nursing home there was a middle aged man who had died in an auto accident, when he got to Heaven, the first thing he saw was his pets from his life. The paramedics brought him back as he is here on this green earth to tell his story.
In the days after Coffee's passing different things have ministered to me greatly, things from God above.
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A pristine white feather in a historical district laying directly in my path as I walked. I took the shot with my skirt I wore in honor of our precious Coffee. When our little Peanut passed several years ago, a white feather was found on Grace's black jacket in our home. White feathers have special meanings when our pets pass.
This owl has visited me twice. This is a close-up in the tree from this morning.
Once he swooped down and stood on the ground as we made eye contact for a while.
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Do you see God's Creature up in the tree? This is the view from my kitchen window where I wash dishes.
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This beautiful white dove has visited me twice too, I opened the front door and he or she was standing in front of the door on the concrete looking up at me like he was coming to say Hello, I'm here.
He is in the lilac tree not afraid of me at all in these shots.
Some of our pets wonder...What happened to Coffee?
Jem preparing a place for our Coffee.
I will close now...things are quiet here at The Forest Cathedral, I keep our routines and will tell you Dear Readers that the above verse from our friend from her devotional rings true.
I can't deny we miss our Coffee Belle and her sweet smile, we hold on to the Father and trust.
So many things in life to trust the Father with yes?
Listening to: Love is the Thing and More by Nat King Cole. This music is some of the most beautiful and comforting music of all...Memories of life, pets, precious loved ones past and present. For years, this album brings a peace and sweetness to our home here like not much else in the way of music.
Take care Dear Readers, I appreciate you reading here so very much.
~Amelia
