In Memory of Luna

Today, my parents had to put our dog to sleep. They bought her 8 years ago, while my dad was a mission president in Austria. My younger sister (on yet another attempt to get my parents to get a dog) dragged my dad into a pet store, where they were selling little Bernice Mountain dog puppies. My dad fell in love, and home they came with a little puppy. While some family members weren't initially convinced regarding how cool and fun Luna was, eventually everyone in our family fell in love with her. You couldn't help it because she had this knack of knowing exactly who is family (no matter how rarely she'd see you) and she was always excited to see family and be with us. If we were all in one room, she'd want to be there, too. She'd lay in some corner, and just watch and listen, but she wanted to be where we were.

When she was younger, she'd drive us nuts with running away all the time, chasing bunnies and birds, and rolling around in manure. But as she got older we just loved her for loving us so much, always being happy to see us, and letting all the little kids pet her, push her and poke her without making a sound. A few years ago, she got hit by a car pretty badly, and she almost died. I think at that point, we all noticed how much we loved her, as we prayed through the night that she'll pull through. She was hospitalized for 2 weeks, but eventually recovered. We were all so happy to have her back, and she was literally doing summer saults when we picked her up from the vet hospital.

To me, Luna was special, because she had such sense and love for our family. She was really comforting to have around, and I'm so grateful Heavenly Father has created such intelligent and good animals to be such wonderful companions and friends to humans. At the beginning of this year, she got really sick and we all thought she'd die. I prayed really hard that she'd live long enough so that I could see her this summer one more time. She got better, we got to see her, and then towards the end of July she got really sick again. I will miss her wagging her tail when I come home to Germany, and her sticking her nose between my legs (or anyone's legs) to be petted. I will miss her laying down on the ground, impossible to move, when she's not up for a walk, or her pawing the doors when she realizes that everyone is in one room, and she is not. I'll miss her tender brown eyes, looking at you hoping you'll pet her or give her something to eat. I'll miss her just laying down somewhere close to where you are, just because it's nice to be together. I'll just miss our Luna.