For Freddy Girl

 

 As this off-kilter world begins another trip around the sun, it is in the worst condition it has been in a decade and a half because now, we don't have Freddy Girl, aka Freddy the Great, along for the ride.

 

Freddy had two parents who knew one another through a dog group but had never met. Freddy's mom, Gina, contracted cancer, which took her far too soon, leaving broken-hearted friends behind. But, it also energized them to create a Beagle railroad to transport the grieving girl from her first home in the middle of the country to Florida, where her new Dad, Steve, and famous brother, Tommy Tunes, awaited her. 

 

Papa Steve knew the sorrow pet parents suffered when a dog went to the Bridge, and he created framed works of art featuring and honoring the lost pups. He sent the portrait to the grieving parents, and, in every case, it eased their enormous burden. When Tommy went to the Bridge, those his Dad had touched tried to alleviate his grief but came up short because Papa Steve was the master at it.

Freddie the Great lived a modest life for such a remarkable dog. She played in her yard and would frustrate her Dad when she borrowed under the fence and visited neighbors. She loved chasing squirrels and hanging out with her Dad on her couch. Like all senior dogs, Freddie gave hierDad a few scares by not eating, acting mopey, and getting a severe jaw infection. But each time, she bounced back. Freddie proved to be unsinkable.

 

But the first rule of life is that everything ends, and it is sad when it does. It was kidney disease that finally brought Freddy to the Bridge. The vet offered the same Hail Mary treatment of flushing Freddy's kidneys suggested for River, but the likelihood of survival for both was minuscule. Papa Steve took Freddie home and stayed with her for two nights until her life was no longer tenable. Then he brought her to the vet and, with one puncture of a needle, took on all the pain she felt while renewing her spirit and sending her to her brother Tommy, her mother Gina, and many of her friends happy to greet her.

 

Freddy ran across the Bridge, jumped into her mother's arms, put his head on her shoulder, and softly sighed, so happy to be breathing her lovely scent. Freddy realized that she would remain alive on the mortal side as long as someone who loved her was still there. They will move to Happily Ever After when the day comes that they are all on the immortal side.

 

There once was a site called Doggyspace, and when it shut down, Papa Steve took it upon himself to save thousands of pictures from the site and has been the Keeper of the Records ever after. That selflessness was rewarded when, after Tommy passed, he was given the biggest Manson at the Bridge where Tommy, his Dad's previous dogs, and Gina live. Freddy has her own couch again, where she will wait for her Dad to join her at the Bridge while praying he doesn't arrive. It is the duality of being an angel. You hope what you want the most never happens.

 

Papa, Steve, and Freddy lived together. Now the house is lonely, and there is little in life louder than the silence created by a missing heartbeat. But there are beautiful memories of the dogs who lived there, and hopefully, they will light up the house and keep it warm.

 

It hurts our hearts to see a true dog love without a dog. My parents nearly lost their minds to grief between River and Ruby. I don't want him to think the dog would be abandoned if he passed. A large group of people who owe him would happily take Freddy and Tommy's relatives. 

 

Whatever decision is made for the future will be made with love, compassion, and wisdom. Those qualities led Papa Steve to Tommy Freddie, and it will see him through this crisis to.