A boys best friend

We used to have a dog named J.C.  She was an Australian Sheppard that could rival Lassie in her loyalty. She followed Heath around everywhere he went. They did everything together.  I don't know how many times I saw them napping on an old porch swing we used to have.   She was his dog.  You know that dog that when you think back onto your childhood and that's the one that comes to mind.  The one you went fishing with, the one that you shared your lunch with, the dog that was really your friend and not just your pet.  That was J.C.  She was the dog that when she died you cried like you did when you watched Ole Yellar.  Yep that dog.  That's how special she was. 
When Heath was a senior in high school, I was a senior in college.  My parents had just moved into their new house and it was September and the nights were just beginning to get cool.  Football was in the air.  Heath had trained that whole summer for his senior year.  He was on his A game.  During the first away game, he took a late hit to the knee and just like- that his ACL was torn into.  As you can imagine, it was painful.  As painful as knee injuries come.   He finally got home that night  and went to bed.  Our bedrooms were side by side and the night was cool and  nice so mom had the AC off and the windows up.  J.C., who was as smart as they come, knew that something wasn't right with Heath.  I was sound asleep when I awoke to this low moaning sound and then a high pitched sound I couldn't quite make out.  I lay awake listening for the sound and again I heard a moan and then a high pitched noise.  I decided to get up to investigate.  I went into Heaths bedroom and I realized the low moan was Heath.  He was in so much pain from the knee injury he was crying in his sleep.  Then just as I was about to wake him to ask him if he was OK, I heard the howl again.  This sound was coming from outside, underneath Heath's window.  I waited and listened again.  Whenever Heath would cry from the pain, ole J.C. would howl right after he'd cry.  She had been sitting right underneath Heath's bedroom window listening to her old buddy cry.  Heath would moan  and then she would cry.  Her howl was so sad, she understood Heath was hurting and it was breaking her heart.   I just shook my head and went back to bed and fell asleep listening to J.C. cry for her best friend. 

We know how ole J.C. felt.  We watch as Heath has to endure all the pain and we howl.  Not out loud (mainly because they would take us to the crazy floor) but inside in our hearts.  Everything is painful.  Eating, sleeping, and just laying there.  After days like today, whenever that have scraped skin until they find a layer that has been unburned, the pain is at it's highest.  Pain medicine doesn't really do the trick and the only thing you can do is grit your teeth and gut it out. Thankfully these days are getting fewer and fewer, but they aren't getting any easier.  As much mental anguish we have to go through, I cannot imagine what Heath is enduring.  And knowing Heath the way I do, he is probably enduring more than we know because he doesn't want us to worry.   I have been struggling with anger here lately and Lord knows that I don't need anymore than I already have.  I got a letter from a sweet cousin that said she believed that God pick the strong ones to endure things like this.  Then I got a text from a sweet friend that said she believed God chose his best children to endure something like this so that we would all learn how to survive and glorify Him in a situation like this.  Those girls must be right.  We are all watching him, whether from his hospital bed or from this blog, and he is teaching us bravery and courage.  I  would do anything if I could take away his pain for even just a little while, but I will have to settle for just being like J.C. and howling by his bedside.

** Note ... the above dog you see is not J.C.  The only picture I have of her is hanging on Heath's wall at the hospital. So until I can get a pic of J.C., yall can look at Chelsie.  Who is not even Heath's dog, but it was the only pic I had of him with a dog, and I'm so tired that I'm delirious. So just bear with me. 

Til Tomorrow