What a gong show!

I know it's been a few weeks since my last post but dealing with the death of our dog has been harder on us than we ever could have imagined.

I've never had a family pet so Gazza played a huge part in our lives. When we talked about our family it was always: mom, dad, Oz, Lola and our Gazza dog, too!

Right after I posted about his death, we had a bit of an incident. While Ron was digging Gazza's grave, he hit and punctured a gas line. We have 5 acres of land so what are the freakin' odds??

Anyway, while I was actually writing that blog, I heard him running upstairs yelling for me. He's the calmest person in the world but I didn't really care that he was in such a panic because I was BLOGGING and really EMOTIONAL!!

After he called me again, I posted the blog, went upstairs and wondered WTF that smell was. And that's when he told me he hit a gas line.

This all happened within a half hour of finding our dead dog. Our kids were upset, I was an emotional wreck but our neighbours were incredibly sweet, even though I kept apologizing in advance if Ron happened to blow up their house.

The fire trucks and gas company came, asking Ron, "Um, sir, what were you doing digging a grave in the middle of the night?"

And then they wondered what he hit the gas line with because it's unusal for anyone to be able to puncure a gas line.

We ended up not getting into our house until 1:30 a.m.

The next morning when Oscar and I were talking about Gazza, Lola piped up and said, "Excuse me mom, but do I have to explain this to you?"

Oz and I looked at each other, wondering what wisdom she was about to bestow upon us. "Don't you understand," she said? "The fireman came last night to take Gazza so that he could live with them."

It was the sweetest, most saddest thing I'd ever heard.

If you've ever lost a pet, you know how hard this has been for us. I used to hear about those movies like Marley & Me and think, "How dumb. Dog's dead, get over it!!" I know, I know, heartless and lacking in empathy!!

I don't believe in replacing a family pet. It's like replacing a husband (of course if Sheldon Souray came along a week after Ron kicked it, I would be easily tempted to hit that!).

But we have decided that our house is lonely without our dog and so we are getting another Boxer puppy. He will come home at the end of the month and we are really looking forward to having him in our family.

Gazza will always be a huge part of our lives - we buried him underneath a tree in our front yard and the kids often go to see him before they go to bed. I used to tell him, "Who's the biggest dog in the world?? Gazza's the biggest dog!!" and he would twist his body and get all excited and jump on me.

I won't forget him and I am a better person for having him in my life.

xoxoox Gaz.