Our Genesis

It is with a heavy heart that I blog about our beloved girl Genesis. While the family was out volunteering on Friday night, we came home to the realization that we had just lost one of our dearest companions. She was struck by a car not long before we returned to the house. All of her injuries were internal and we have no reason to believe that she suffered. But in her absence we are aching.

About 5 months after Robby and I were married, we were working as Youth Pastors for a church in Greers Ferry, AR. At this time we were looking for a puppy to fill the void of my most beloved pet ever, whom had just died. During our quest, we ventured to a nearby lakeside town called Fairfield Bay to check out the doggies at a humane society there. While I was on the prowl for a baby dog, Robby stopped at the pen of a fully grown female canine with nothing obviously special about her. When he came to a halt in front of her, I remember her jumping up to the gate, paws on the top of it, and when Robby reached out to pet her cheek she leaned her entire body right into his hand in the most precious, gentle way. That's all it took and the two of them were instantly in love. Robby turned to me and said, "I want her". It was with a combination of brattiness, being focused on a specific goal, and having not just personally experienced the electricity that occurred between my husband and some random animal that I protested his request. But in a very non-typical fashion, Robby was adamant that this was one creature he couldn't be without. And so that day we became the new owners of a happy, orange Pit Bull mix that would soon be called "Genesis".

We received word from some of the staff that Genny (her nickname) was a survivor. She'd been badly abused by a previous owner, had made a new home in the woods and given birth to at least one litter of puppies there, and hunted rabbits, birds, etc for food. This was apparent to Robby and I throughout the years of being her parents as she would occasionally kill those exact same creatures and bring them up to the house as if she had just accomplished some great feat and wanted to show off to us. But despite this, she was the most humble animal I have ever known. She was submissive like no other, had a sweet habit of laying on her back when you approached her, and possessed an actual smile! When she was particularly happy she'd do something Robby dubbed the "Pattycake Dance" with a massive grin. She loved being petted and rubbed in any way, shape, or form and she didn't even mind when I "cheated" by taking her own paw and using it to scratch her belly! The thing she was most talented at was being a superb watchdog. Genesis would go to every point around our property and be on the look out for danger. She never failed in alerting us to unknown people or animals and didn't back off until we officially deemed them okay. She was very intelligent and dependable. I, for one, felt very safe with her here. Genny had been through a lot in her nearly 10 years on earth. We'd come close to losing her once before when she had a terrible case of deadly heartworms and had gotten very sick. Luckily we'd caught it at a stage that it was still treatable and we'd taken close care of her after many appointments and injections at our vet's office to fight the worms. Praise God she survived and went on to live several more years with us.

Yesterday afternoon we buried our old friend. Robby was in tears and I had to fight them off (I'd already shed so many the day before) so that I could be "tough" for the kids. When I took the children out to her grave, Genny was already halfway underground and not visible. We took turns throwing flowers into the grave, along with a picture Ireland had drawn for her, and saying goodbye before Rob finished up with the remaining dirt. We will miss our girl, but it leaves us feeling better to know that while she was with us, she lived an exceedingly joyful life.