Imagine you have a friend who can’t talk. But he spends all his time with you, he’s loyal, he plays with you, warns you of dangers, watches your house while you’re away, keeps your feet warm. He helps you get rid of squash that mom put on your plate at dinner, travels back and forth (and back and forth and back and forth) across the country with you. Imagine a friend small enough at one time to fit in your purse, who grew big enough to jump into your arms from the ground like he was on springs, always glad to see you, who knew when you were sad or sick and cuddled with you. Imagine a friend who’d play hide and seek with you, shake your hand, had a loving personality, and who would chase cats on command (bonus!).

I didn’t have to imagine such a friend, because we had one. Our oldest pomer, Brewster, died this Monday in his sleep. The sickness that did him in came on him suddenly, before we had time to take him to the vet. Since he lived about 5 years longer than a pomer is supposed to, he was very aged and fragile. He had few teeth left, and his hair was a bit scraggly. But until last week he could bark with the best of them. Other times he was sick, but he battled back. To many of you, a dog is a dog. But some of you know better.

Dogs have no souls. I won’t be seeing Brewster in heaven. However, God will be there. And I can tell him thank you. Thank you for the wonderful world we live in. Thank you for the wonderful creations he made for us. And specifically, thank you for Brewster. A little dog that loved us unconditionally, even when we got hung up somewhere and came home late to let him outside. Even when we left him with someone and went on a vacation once in a while. Even when we brought home other, younger dogs that invaded his “space”. A creature that emulated the love, and the forgiveness, that Christians should show towards one another – what a wonderful gift and reminder from God.

As coincidence would have it, I had a different reminder of the love Christians should have towards one another on Monday… from other Christians! I have a storage shed that weights about 1000 pounds (by Paul’s guess) that suddenly had to be moved or be crushed. I had tree men coming to cut down a bunch of trees around it, and the choice was either bust up my driveway or the shed. I had three days to do it. Nine men took time out of their Memorial day holiday and came all the way out here to Pepperell, not a trivial distance for most, to help me pick this thing up and move it over 100 feet to a new location! I’m not going to make some generic, blanket statement like “Thank you, and you know who you are”. Let me name names for you:

Dave Dugas Kieran Murphy Sean Murphy Nathan Quinn Patrick Young Steve Chetelat Brian Poitras Nathan Chetelat Paul Kerouac

These men didn’t just talk about love, they acted on it. Some ladies came, too, like Tara who helped Deniese cook up some breakfast. Thank you thank you thank you all! That Dave Dugas in particular! I was reluctant to ask for help, as most of us are (shame on me), and so at the potluck Saturday I mentioned it to a few people to see what kind of reception I would get. It didn’t seem likely I would be able to coordinate enough people, so I told him I would just break the shed apart and Deniese and I would move it in pieces. There was no way he was going to allow my wife to move this heavy thing, even in pieces, and not only (I suspect) “guilted” a few people into coming but kept goading me into getting over my shyness and ask more people to come. What a great example he is to me! What a great gift from God these ALL are to me!

Randy