COCOA: a memorial

After many years of faithful service as watchdog, playpal, and beggar to the Missionary Family Rodgers (and our own personal grandpuppy), Cocoa went to doggy heaven (if there is one. we really don't know for sure because the Bible doesn't say one way or the other...but if there IS a doggy heaven, I'm sure Cocoa is there). Following are the words that were read by the children at Cocoa's funeral service, held Thursday, August 19, 2010. Burial was in the backyard near her doghouse.


POP says: I think she sacrificed her health to protect us from harm. I think the poisons did some damage. (In the line of duty as watchdog, Cocoa was poisoned several times by would-be robbers in an effort to stop her from warning the family of an intruder, but she always pulled through.)

I will always have warm memories about her.


MEEMAW says: Hot dogs (I bought hot dogs for her and gave her one every morning...she always waited at the doorway to the guest quarters where we stayed with the Rodgers family). Eager face in my doorway. Sneaking a paw in the door…then a nose…then her whole body. Sounding like she could eat up the repairmen. Hiding behind the pool. Silly dog. Doing all of here tricks for a morsel of any kind of food. Spitting out the carrots (and giving me that “what on earth are you feeding me” look). Chewing forever on a tiny bit of something, yet swallowing whole a big chunk of hot dog (she didn’t even taste it!) That horrified look she’d get at the thought of getting in the pool. Getting tangled up in the pool netting. Licking her chops when I’m eating something and I know she’s not hungry at all. Sneaking on the veranda. Chewing up stuff she knew she shouldn’t have chewed (and looking verrrry sorry). Looking at me so pitifully when she had to stay in the pen because of guests at the house. Poking her nose through the fence while detained in the Pen. Dragging herself sleepily out of the "cave" where she chose to live…stretching, yawning, lazing her way to me when I called. Kicking her hind leg while I scratched her tummy. Holding her face in my hands, looking into her eyes and saying “You’re a dog!”


A great dog to remember.


You may have other pets in your life, but Cocoa was the first. She will always be remembered fondly.


Pop and I will miss Cocoa.

All in the Perspective

My granddaughter, Kayla, a 12-year-old MK (missionary kid) living in Swaziland, is home schooled. She sent me the following essay. See if it blesses you as much as it blessed me. (copied here just as she wrote it.)


The Neighborhood Beyond Our Atmosphere

God has made a massive universe that I just love to learn about. So today I’m going to share my interest with you. There are many so many things I could share with you about space. It has more to study than if I lived 1,000 lives, doing nothing but studding the universe, I still would get only a tiny fraction of it. So I will tell you today about the distance between our neighboring heavenly bodies and our earth.

Our solar system is centered around the sun. The sun is a pretty little star compared to the others in our galaxy. We are 93,000,000 miles away from the sun. Mercury is 36 million miles away from the sun, Venus is 67.2 million miles, Mars is 141.6 million miles, Jupiter is 483.6 million miles, Saturn is 870 million miles, Uranus is 1.78 billion miles, Neptune is 2.8 billion miles, and Pluto is 3.6 billion miles away.

The distance between us and the stars in our universe is amazing. Proxima Centauri, the second farthest star from earth, is 25 trillion miles away from earth. Now warp your mind around d this. Betelgeuse in Orion is 520 light years away! 1 light year is 6 trillion miles! You do the math. Yeah, we’re small.

The distance between us and the Andromeda galaxy is 2.9 million light years away. We are extremely tiny. Yet, “For God so loved the world that He gave us His only begotten son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16” He loves us! Tiny literally whiney, microscopic specs and this scale, He talks about us and cares about our problems. Can we just thank Him for loving us? Can just we surrender our lives to Him?