Even in the Darkness Every Color Can Be Found . . .

I broke from my titling convention today because it's a special post. For anyone who didn't hear, our beloved dog Joxer passed away yesterday. It wasn't a surprise, he was old and ill for a very long time. As hard as it is for us to say goodbye, I believe it was a relief for him, and I take comfort in knowing that the hardest things for us freed him from his pain. When it became clear he wouldn't be coming home from the vet, I needed to have a task and I wanted to remove most of his things before my son got home from VBS, knowing that I couldn't do it with him around. So I boxed up his treats and most of his toys (I kept his favorite), his unopened food, brush, flea medication, and posted an ad on FreeCycle, simply saying that our dog had died and that this box of his stuff was available. And to my surprise, within hours I had tons of responses, but not of people asking for the box, mostly of people saying they didn't need/want the supplies, but just to offer condolences. Even most of the people who responded that they would pick it up said that they were so sorry for our loss and they would come as quickly as possible, to avoid us having to see the box sitting around. The woman who did pick it up had just gotten a dog from the pound and needed supplies, which I felt really good about - a rescued dog getting a huge box of treats - who deserves it more? And when she and her daughter came, they asked about Joxer and were so sweet and compassionate. It doesn't mean we don't grieve for Joxer, but some healing comes from the surprising acts of kindness that we saw. Thank you, Pittsburgh FreeCyclers, for showing a light in our darkness.