Farewell Sarge

Sarge D. Thompson (as he was fondly called by Brandt D. Thompson) passed away tonight at the tender age of 1 1/2 of unknown but seemingly natural causes following a short illness.  It was just two days ago that he was out and running around with the children he loved to play with, as well as drool on and unintentionally knock over or lead astray at times.  Brandt had a special bond with him that was strengthened more each time they got into trouble together.   Their most recent shenanigans took place on a beautiful Sunday morning following the 4th of July when the girls of the house were inside getting ready for church and Brandt let Sarge out of his kennel.  At first they played innocently in the yard together and then they ran through the sprinkler in the family garden before running away down the highway to the neighbor's house a block away.  Our guardian angels were working overtime that day as they protected a young boy and his beloved dog who were both oblivious to the millions of vehicles rushing by them.  It was apparent that neither one of them were concerned about sacrificing sacrament meeting  for the better good of following their noses to wherever they might lead them.  Unfortunately this event planted a seed of fear in the hearts of the adults involved and prompted them to place a padlock on the kennel door.  This was hardly a challenge for a boy who loves to climb and it wasn't long before Sarge's best friend was climbing over the chain link walls to spend time with him.  There have been some sad faces in our household tonight and Brandt has reacted in the only way his little body knows how- out of control!  The poor little guy has been on a roller coaster of emotions thus causing a wide variety of behaviors ranging from avoiding his feelings by acting like it didn't happen to being super hyper to being down right mean and nasty to sobbing.  As always, we will survive and will learn from this experience and be stronger for it.  In the words of a wise little Kylie, "don't worry, Brandt.  Sarge is in heaven and will be alive again and we'll get to see him."