Farewell to Phoebe

As I settled in last night at the hotel, I was in good spirits.  The TMEA (Texas Music Educators Association) show had been going well.  We’d had loads of interest in our new band cabinets and I’d just finished a great steak at Morton’s just a couple of hours earlier.  What could possible go wrong?  Then the phone rang.

First off, anytime my phone rings at 10:30pm at night, someone better be in jail, at the hospital, or on fire.  I’m not one that makes (or accepts) calls that late just for the heck of it.  That ring at that time meant something was very wrong.  I answered to the sound of garbled speech filled with whaling moans and crying.  Something had gone wrong…it was just a question of how wrong.

I soon learned that Phoebe, a 3 month old German shepard who joined our family just a couple of weeks ago, had just run under the car as my daughter and her mother pulled up the drive.  Jennifer was on the phone with me while trying to assess the injuries and hold back the emotions.  The injuries were fatal and Phoebe didn’t have time to suffer.  But my daughter and Jennifer were just starting their emotional roller coaster.

I spent the next few minutes with both of them – chatting about what to do and how to handle it, and trying to be a good listener.  Jennifer was feeling a tremendous amount of guilt.  Kyndall was emotional about the loss of her new puppy.  I was emotional since I couldn’t be there for them.  It made for a very long night with little sleep.

I’m glad to report that things are better this morning.  The grieving process is underway.  The emotional roller coaster is slowing.  Life is starting to return to normal.  But even that little dog, who was only in our lives for such a short time, sure had formed a bond with us.  We’ll all miss her.  She was quite the dog.