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Woman's Best Friend Passing on God's comfort by Peggy Lively I had just taken our yellow lab Tucker to the vet for a regular check-up, and at eleven years old he was still in very good health. Over the next couple of weeks, however, he began to quickly decline, becoming lethargic and not eating well. By the end of three weeks, he was looking very thin and could hardly get up. I actually had to pick him up and carry him into the vet. After x-rays, blood work, and biopsies, they discovered cancer in his mouth. The vet said it didn't look good, so they kept him overnight. The cancerous spot in his mouth doubled in size by morning. They were now having to syringe feed him, since he was still unable to eat. He had lost ten pounds in three weeks. He stayed a second night at the vet, and again the cancer doubled in size overnight. Now the side of his face and lip were visibly swollen from the growth. At this point, we realized there was nothing we could do to help him. He was miserable and declining rapidly. So we made the difficult decision to put him to sleep. We gathered our family together at the vet hospital, and with lots of tears we told Tucker goodbye. This was one of the hardest things I've had to do. I never thought I would be so emotionally attached to a dog, but as I examined my emotions over the following days, I began to understand why. Tucker had accompanied me on literally thousands of walks over the years. On these walks, early in the morning, I would pray. I have had some very intense and intimate moments with the Savior as I have walked, and Tucker was always right there by my side. Without realizing it, he had become a source of silent strength and companionship as he walked with me during these precious times ... just me and him. Now that he was gone, I sensed the void. My walks with Tucker remind me of my conversations with my Savior; so it makes those times with him more valuable than I ever thought possible. They are priceless. Less than three weeks later, an interesting thing happened. My friend and neighbor across the street had to make this same difficult decision. Her dog, Molly, was fourteen years old and had woken up blind. Not being able to see, she fell into their swimming pool and couldn't get out. My friend Diane saw her and had to pull her out of the water. Because Molly had many other health problems as well, Diane knew what she had to do. I sat with her, talked with her, cried with her, and helped her carry Molly to the back of her car. I really felt her pain, because I had just been here. I realized that I would have never been this compassionate or sympathetic to her situation if I had not just experienced this same pain myself. In so many ways, I feel like God allowed me to walk through it first so that I could be there to comfort her. That's really what it's all about: "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God" (2 Corinthians 1:3-4). That's what Jesus did for us. He came and experienced temptation and suffering so that he could sympathize with us. "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are — yet was without sin" (Hebrews 4:15). He knows our sorrows; He feels our pain. God doesn't waste the suffering and pain in our lives. He will use it for his glory and the comfort of others if we let him!