24 odd hours

I was writing my sermon for tonight yesterday afternoon and I got a call from my Dad telling me that our dog, Tassa was very sick (she's been sick for months) and was probably going to die soon, and asking me if I would like to go and see the dog. So Jo and I hopped in the car and headed out to Hornsby for one last visit with the dog that we grew up with.

When we arrived Tassa stood up a greeted us. She wagged her tail, and we were told that that was the first time she'd moved all day. She was really sick, she was finding it really hard to breath, and couldn't lie down because she was so uncomfortable. She'd been standing up for 24 hours.

After a family conference we decided that we should take her too the vet to have her put down, rather than delay the inevitable.

At that stage it was about 6pm, so Dad called the after hours vet and arranged to meet her at the clinic. We picked up Tassa and all walked out to the car. As we were walking out, Hannah was amazingly perceptive and kept waving at Tassa saying "Bye bye Tassa, bye bye."

When we arrive at the vet, the Vet told us what was going to happen. She was just going to overdose Tassa on anesthetic and she would just drift off to sleep. When the Vet went out to get the stuff, we decided to send Hannah out with my Auntie while the procedure happened. So we sent Hannah over to pat Tassa one last time, she patted Tassa and said "Bye bye Tassa" and as she did that Tassa seemed to try to stand up or something and then she just went limp and stopped breathing. Most of the family were holding on to Tassa at the time. Mum called the Vet in, who had a listen to her heart and told us that it was slowing down, then her heart stopped all together and she was dead. All of us were there, in the room, we didn't have to get her put down, and she died as pleasantly as you could hope for. It was an amazing. It was like God had it all figured out. I am amazed at the graciousness of God, that he would orchestrate the death of even an old, rather insignificant, family dog.

I carried Tassa out to the car and we took her home and buried her in the bush. It was rather sad, as much as she was a nuisance sometimes, she was also our cute little dog. I'd grown up with her, she'd been in my life for 15 years, and I was always fond of her, even if I didn't do a real good job as showing it ("Tassa, shut up!" isn't exactly the greatest show of affection). And now our little dog is gone.

After that I stayed at my parents house writing the sermon. I was meant to go to a party last night, but the dog stuff got in the way.

On the way to work this morning I was driving down a road near church, and I saw a cyclist get hit by a car. He was riding on the left between parked cars and the car in front of me. The car turned to go into driveway just as the cyclist was riding past it and he got hit. He went up onto the bonnet then onto the ground.

I pulled over to see if I was needed, but I felt rather inadequate. It happened right outside the local oval so there were people everywhere. People stopped and came running and were on their phones and everything. I figured I was probably a little redundant, so when was sure there was nothing I could be doing I headed off to church. It was all a bit of a shock really. I hope the guy's ok. He looked like he would be. I hope the people in the car are ok too. I'm sure it's not easy coping with something like that.

So that was my odd 24 hours. The rest of the day was pretty normal. I did mother's day lunch with Mother and family which was nice. I visited the local retirement village with my diminishing youth group (there isn't a lot of enthusiasm for hanging out with old people) which was special, because it's always good visiting, blessing and being blessed by the people there. And I preached tonight which went better than I thought it would.