Rosco.

My heart is heavy. For those of you who don’t have pets or care for them, feel free to skip over my rambling-but if you view your animals as part of your family, as we do, read on.

You met Rosco. We have had him for two months. Such a short time really, but long enough for that sassy little puppy to dig into our hearts. Maybe it has to do with the fact that we have been feeling a bit lonely the past few months already. Cap Haitian has proven to be more of a challenge in finding community and friends. God is faithful, and he has brought a long a few gems here and there thus far. We know He will continue to provide in this area and we wait in expectation.

But in the meantime, we got Rosco. For companionship and for added protection and security. Both Brandon and I are not used to Rottweilers, as they are a little less snuggly than our last dog. But, over the last two months he has been warming up to us, and would even start wondering into a room just to hang out in there with us. It was a drastic change from our last dog, Zoe, who would follow you even to the bathroom cause she didn’t want to leave your side for one minute!

When we knew we were leaving for three weeks we had mixed feelings. Mostly we were overjoyed for a break which we both desperately needed! But we also thought we pry weren’t heading home till Christmas, which was why we thought getting a puppy in May was going to work out great-we’d have plenty of time with him before we left him alone. So, we had to figure out what to do with Rosco while we were gone. We thought about asking sweet Manette, but considering she’s Haitian and pretty much terrified of him, we thought that wouldn’t work for all parties involved. So we asked our sweet friends Meg and Wilbert. Thankfully, they willingly agreed. We even took Rosco over a few times to see how he did with their dogs to make sure he would be okay.

The dreaded day come of leaving him behind and wouldn’t you know it he was also sick. He threw up the night before and a few times the next day. It was awful. I already felt guilty for leaving him behind, and now he was sick, all curled up and snuggling with me-which was so unlike him. It sounds silly to admit, but I actually prayed over him. I can truthfully say, I’m don’t recall having prayed for a pet, but it felt like the right thing to do, and the only thing I could do. Anyway, we dropped him off, and I’m embarrassed to admit I teared up. I was leaving him, and while he was sick.  Meg was so great, and promised me she would comfort him and take care of him. We called the next day from Port au Prince (we had to take care of some things there before we flew out) and he wasn’t doing better. In fact, she had brought over their friend who is a vet to look at him. The vet thought he had a disease that you can get from eating poop-and I had to admit that was his favorite thing to do-play detective and sniff out poo to eat it. Sick I know, and I stopped him every chance I got, but he persisted nonetheless. He supposedly had shots for that in the DR-but we decided who knows if we could trust that paperwork. Well, the vet gave him an IV and antibiotics. The next day he looked better, and started drinking water. Well, that night he was not okay again, and the vet came by to check him again. He decided he didn’t have the poop eating disease-but was unsure what was going on. He had other things happening which I’d rather not discuss.

Today we had  a long-but great-day of meetings today at Living Water headquarters in Houston.  (More to share on that…) But a huge highlight of the day was as a sweet and delightful surprise, Shannon -the LWI employee I told you about that just came to Haiti with the Mississippi team-set up a skype date with that team from Crossgates! So the three of us in Houston, chatted with almost all of them in Mississippi! They crowded around the computer at their church-and three of them even drove into the church just to make the surprise skype date! It was so great to see them, joke with them, and chat with them. At the end, one of them asked about little rascal Rosco, and since this group has a way of peering right into my soul, I told them his status. And wouldn’t you know the moment I stopped talking they asked if they could pray over him. I laughed, and they did too, but said they were serious, and they did. There was a line from David Cherry’s prayer that God used to touch my heart, and I’d like to share it with you. It was something like, “God we lift up Rosco-because you are a God who cares about the details of our lives, the big and the little things. You care about the things we do, and we thank you for that” I needed to hear that,be reminded of that truth, and trust in that. Even if it’s about a dog, it’s on my heart and the Lord cares what is on my heart no matter what it may be.

Well, after a sweet goodbye we hung up and I called Meg to check on Rosco. He died the day before, on Sunday.

I was crushed. I still am.

The vet never knew what was wrong with him…and we’ll never know for sure. We think there is a possibility of foul play-by a man who doesn’t know the love of Jesus and is not very nice. In my heart and spirit I feel this, and am not sure what really happened. And truthfully, I could use prayer for my heart. It wants to hate him and blame him, when we don’t know for sure if it was him. And it’s sad over loosing another sweet pet, a member of our family, even for a brief time.