A Sea of Support

This past week has had me thinking about human nature more than I care to admit.  If you have been following along with Thor’s story you can see that we have had an emotional week.  Emotional to say the least.  But the emotions have also been surrounded by an amazing support.  Not just from family and friends, but from strangers.

You see we bought Thor when we got married after putting down a dog that I loved so much, but was not a good fit for a family, and lashed out and bit a dear friend’s child.  I felt sick about that.  Sick to my core.  Putting her down was an awful mix of sadness and relief that she could never hurt someone again.  With that fresh in my mind I searched far and wide for the BEST dog for families and children.  And came across the Newfoundland Dog breed.  I know that lots of people thought we were crazy newlyweds spending far too much on a purebred puppy, but in my heart, I was set on finding the very best dog for our future babies.  We didn’t have any kids yet, we had just begun trying.  In fact, we got our positive pregnancy test the day after we took him home!  (That worked out in my favour because I didn’t have to clean up any accidents he had because I felt so sick!)  He has truly been here for the entire life of our children.  And what a sweet gentle giant he has been.  Not once has he gotten tired of the kid’s playing on him, or refused to pull them in the wagon.  Or complained about being covered in stickers, or gloves put on his paws… or that one time he got his toenails painted.

Maybe that’s why it’s so hard to stomach what happened to him.  That someone took him from us and hurt him.  That he escaped to come home to us.  It isn’t fair.  It makes me feel sick.  Part of me wishes I could know what went on, and part of me knows that it would be too hard to handle knowing.

But on the other side of that is all the love, compassion and support I have felt.  Complete strangers have been reaching out to us and sending us tips and their stories and words of encouragement.  I have never felt so supported by a sea of people in my life.  Not just people who know and love Thor, but people who have seen his story and felt something and been compelled to share with us and give to us.  It has really touched me.  And I thank you.  From the bottom of my heart.

We saw the vet today and have no new updates other than the full cost of the surgery.  It’s going to be an awful and hard decision and we hope that everyone understands whatever way we must choose.  The last thing we want is for him to lose his happy sparkle, and his quality of life.  Whatever the future holds, he has been such a ray of sunshine in our lives.  Today when I explained to Little Chef that Thor wasn’t allowed to go play outside with him because he was not feeling great he looked at me and said “Maybe Thor wants a beer?”  Good call buddy.

Tonight we finished the first round of edits on our cookbook.  The fact that all of this happened while we were in the middle of such an amazing and exciting process has been hard.  I had set a goal to be finished edits before tonight, but with everything going on I didn’t make that goal.  But looking at it now it’s OK.  This is life.  That is what our book is about.  Finding the joy in every day life.  Even days that are hard.  Finding the time to cook together as a family and enjoy each other.  Because that is what is enjoyable about life.  Not just the holidays and celebrations, the every day community.  Maybe in our own way we can encourage and inspire people the way all of you  have encouraged us this past week.

Thank you all for your support, and encouragement.  You have really made me realise how much good there is in the world.

-Stephanie

One Reply to “A Sea of Support”

  1. There is a go fund me set up for Thor that was made by some sweet people who care for Thor, please find the link at
    https://www.gofundme.com/i-am-thor

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