🐅Tiger-striped, Loyal, Beggy, Playful, Gorgeous, Strong Boy 🐕

So Miranda came home from her mission a couple weeks early to have some surgery, but I have this great excuse to still write our family history down, since her novio is still on his mission in Paris, France for the next year.  So until May 9, 2019, I'll still write a missionary letter for our blog posts.  =)


So there are a lot of pictures, but most of them are of Zeus.  Once he went to Heaven, we had a somber week.  But here we go.

So I forgot this picture of the kids playing Pirate's Dice Sunday night.  I love it when they do stuff together.

Then the worst day came.  Jeff got up early and made Zeus some bacon & eggs for breakfast.

Then the kids trickled out, school by school, and said bye to him.  The littles got ready early and spent time sitting with him.

Then as they were leaving, they came to where he had lain down, and cried over him and praised all his good efforts as the best dog in the world.  They are totally right.

When he went barking out in the back to guard the house one more time, Jeff gave him some of his own praise of the same thing:  you have guarded and protected us so well, and you're the best dog.  Thank you and we love you so much.

I'll tell you a little story while I show you the pictures of Zeus going to his last vet appointment ever.  Sometimes I wondered, since Zeus was so nice and friendly, if he would be able to protect us when there was real danger.  Over the years of watching him growl at what he thought was danger outside our fence, I came to the conclusion that if someone were menacing and coming at us, and we were acting afraid, he would definitely rise to the occasion.

But it wasn't until his last day, Sunday, when I saw Zeus for who he really was.  When Hoss had come over, he was so anxious to get in the house.  Since I didn't want him to go in, I was struggling with him.  And Zeus was instantly between me & Hoss.  There wasn't even room for him between us, and there he was.

I looked back on all the times when he stood between us and other people & animals, and I couldn't believe it.  When we watched all the videos of him that night, I could see that he was always walking between the kids and their friends; always running out to sniff everyone while they played and make sure their emotions weren't frightened.  He stood by the trampoline looking out past our fence; he patrolled the edges of the yard every time we spent time outside; he watched over our home and property so faithfully.

Another hero Zeus story:  While Jeff & I were on vacation together, Carol texted and told us Zeus had run away again.  We felt bad that she had to deal with that while we were gone.  But dang it, that dog.  We found out later that the Oliver kids down the street (who were overcoming their deathly-afraid-of-even-tiny-dogs phase) were walking home, and there was a big, menacing black & white dog bothering them, lunging at them, and scaring them.  They said all of a sudden, Zeus was between them and the dog.  He barked the other dog away, nosing at it and staying between it and the kids until they got home, periodically driving it away whenever it came close.  That's my boy.

This dog loved people and animals.  His spirit was so much bigger than his body.  He loved snow, throwing it in the air and digging his nose down in it, gleefully bounding around the yard in it.  He brought us his toys a countless many times and nudged them on us, urging us to throw them.  He could clear a room with his "purple cloud," and sometimes, it cleared even him.  He dug after burrowers in our yard, making huge holes in the sandbox.  He took his dinner bones up to Zuki Hill and we still don't know where his secret stash is.  He couldn't play with Chloe physically, so he kissed her face in little "make out sessions" and tolerated her bossing; she was definitely the alpha, because he allowed her to be.

He got those cats to love him.  He patiently waited for people food from us - his begging consisted of sitting at attention drooling.  You could hardly stand those puppydog eyes.

He wore his body out completely, serving us.  All living things are resurrected, and I can hardly wait to see him again.  I know Heavenly Father is proud of how Zeus lived his life.  He's running pain free and happy now.

His tribute pictures on IG & FB:

So now it's really quiet around the house.  It's amazing how you don't realize you can simply hear your big pet breathing in the background until you don't.  I have found something each day that has just made me shed a copious amount of tears in little sessions.  Aaahhh!!!  That dog!  But here's our house Monday night:

And seriously, nothing really happened.  So during the week with no pictures and no events, this popped up.  Jeff & I had left a package of presents for the kids to open while we were gone, and this is what they did with the cool sunglasses we left them. 

Thursday, Miranda went to the temple with her friend who's preparing to go on her mission to Peru!

That night, after scripture study, Connor wanted to study Genesis with me.  He asks Jeff & me if we'll study it with him sometime.  We're on chapter 7 now... it is HARD to get through some of that!!

Friday, Morgan's phone came... his has been falling apart for so long.  He finally got all his money together and ordered one... ahhh, it's so nice.

Saturday:

And the 2 pets that are left have done their own grieving.  Monday night and Tuesday, we saw Sterling circling the inside of the house over & over.  Chloe did this kind of cry when I picked her up to pet her.  They loved him, too.

Sunday, I couldn't help but take a picture of Morgan at the pulpit, challenging everyone to read the D&C in one month.  I love it.

Especially since they're studying it in seminary.  Here's the stolen post by Carlie:

We celebrated Carol's 39th birthday that night.  So many people at the house now... so happy.  =)

And MEMES!!!  Some left over animal.

Love, us!  xoxooxoxoxoxoxoxxoxoxoxoxooxxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo