When Your Pet Dies

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This is the Truth Network. The heart of every man craves a great adventure, but life doesn't usually feel that way. Jesus speaks of narrow gates and wide roads, but the masculine journey is filled with many twists and turns. So how do we keep from losing heart while trying to find the good way when life feels more like a losing battle than something worth dying for? Grab your gear and come on a quest with your band of brothers who will serve as the guides in what we call the masculine journey.

The masculine journey starts here now. And that's something, unfortunately, since the fall, you know, even from the point that you're a small child, you maybe lost a goldfish or there was a bird that died out in the yard and you really never had a chance to understand death, how that exactly worked or how do you deal with that in your heart. And so we're going to dive in because what I have discovered even in my older years, and now I'm 67 if you're wondering, that it doesn't get any easier. We lost our beloved dog, my father's dog actually, but you know, my father went to be with the Lord in 2019 and so his dog was very precious to us.

And so I thought, what a neat topic, what a way to go. And so, you know, I have some dear brothers, obviously, that have been through something similar, both I know Rodney recently and Andy in so many different ways, even Sam. But Sam's not here. So it's summertime and that, you know, we're missing Danny and Sam, but we got new characters, cast of characters.

We have actually, from what I understand, and it's been voted on by us, the world's greatest voice, the voice that should have been on radio ever since the beginning. So welcome, Kerry. You are now official guest of The Masculine Journey. So thank you very much. It's an honor for someone to invite me. I want to thank Kenny for inviting me to come. It's been a wonderful experience.

Dinner was wonderful tonight. It's great to have you. And so, you know, David, so you just don't feel like, you know, you're the only guest.

Yeah, I know. That's why I was like, did the guest title retire for me now or am I still a guest? Now I'm guest number two because I don't have the best radio voice I have, I understand. So I think I'm going to go to Andy. And Andy, you know, we did an interview with John Eldridge.

2017 or 18, somewhere around there. Right. And he wrote this amazing book that was really helpful to a lot of folks, helpful to me. You know, it's called All Things New. And what an amazing trip into the Scriptures to try to begin to understand heaven. And because, you know, obviously even the small child is told, well, the dog went to heaven or the bird went to heaven. You know, those were things you were told. Now we don't necessarily know all those things. But, you know, it's interesting that John went into the Scriptures and did a lot of that work, Andy.

He did. So when we had him on, my dog, Lucy, I had just lost her. And I was having a tough time with it. And I got this book about the same time.

It was really helpful. So what he described, and I just kind of glanced at it again tonight and really just pulled out some Scripture that I was going to read. But he didn't necessarily say our dogs will be in heaven. You know, there's still a question. I tend to think that there may be because it says that Jesus restores all things. And these are not sinful creatures. Like, they didn't, they don't have the choice. So maybe they are, maybe they are.

I don't know. But we do know that animals will be there. And I'm going to confirm that here. This is out of Isaiah 11, 6 through 9. The wolf will romp with the lamb. The leopards sleep with the kid. Calf and lion will eat from the same trough. And a little child will tend them. Cow and bear will graze the same pasture. Their calves and cubs grow up together. And the lion eats straw like the ox. The nursing child will crawl over a rattlesnake den.

The toddler stick his hand down the hole of a serpent. Neither animal nor human will herd or kill on my holy mountain. The whole earth will be brimming with knowing God. Alive, a living knowledge of God, ocean deep, ocean wide. Yeah, and how cool is that? That not only will we obviously be in the presence of God in so many neat ways, but we'll get to be with the animals how they were really, I mean, you know, at a level that we've never experienced before. Yeah, if I was God, I would have kept the serpent out. But the serpent was actually a holy thing before the fall, right? Our dragons are cool, man. Have you ever seen them?

They're like, man, pretty amazing, you know? So God knows what he's doing and restoring all things new. But it's going to be exciting and it's not going to be, you know, I think heaven, I mean, the earth is a picture of what heaven's going to look like. It'll be different and much grander, I think. But, you know, again, he could just say, he could have started over and wiped everything out. It says he's going to make all things new. Well, here's the big question, Andy.

Do you think, and this is big, do you think red ferns will grow? That is a tough question. I must get the first clip tonight, I guess. You have been awarded first clipmanship. Oh, nice.

Okay, okay. So I've always heard about that movie and I had not read it and was kind of preparing for this. And it just kind of grabbed me. I need to watch that.

So I watched it for the first time last night and loved the movie. And so it's a story about Billy, who is a kid that really wants coon dogs. That was kind of the tradition there in the Ozarks, a lot of coon hunting. And he is one of these dogs and he is, you know, his grandpa gave him an advice to kind of like give it up to God or not try to not do it, give everything to God to do, but kind of take some part in it. So he goes out and works and buys the, sends off mail order for these two red bone coon dogs. And he gets them and grows them up. He sees on a tree Dan plus Ann. So he names the dogs Dan and Ann, which was pretty creative. He didn't know their names and he really bonds with them. They do well. They win a coon treeing competition.

And then we're kind of leading into it now that his dogs run onto a bobcat and it kind of leads into their demise. But go ahead and play it. Stay, Dan. It's okay, Dan. It's all right. Good girl.

Good girl. In the days that followed, we all grieved for old Dan. It was hard to know whose heart was broke the most. I'm going to go check on little Ann. What's wrong, little girl?

You have to eat something, please. Sometimes you just know what's going to happen, even if you won't listen to the voice that tells you so. And as sure as I knew that winter was coming and we were moving to Tulsa, I knew little Ann's heart was broke. She didn't want to live without old Dan, but I wasn't going to admit it and I wasn't going to let her go without a fight. Little Ann!

Little Ann! Where is she? She ain't in the barn, son. You checked in the house?

Oh, look there already. I don't understand. I prayed for both of my dogs and now they're both dead. Mama sent some prayers too, Billy. Because of your dogs, those prayers were answered.

I need to get started. Little Ann deserves a proper burial box. Do you think God made heaven for dogs? I'm sure he did, Billy.

I'm sure he did. If we want to get to Wagner by night, we better get going. That's everything, Paul. Can I go down the river just one more time? All right, son.

Don't linger. Mama! Papa! Come here!

Hurry! It's a red fern. It's beautiful. Maybe the Lord's trying to tell you something, Billy. They say only an angel can plant those seeds. And whenever that happened, those ferns never died. And that spot was sacred forever. I never made it back to those mountains, but I can still hear the wind in the trees and the sounds of my dogs baying at those coons rolling over the hills under the moonlight. I hope to go back one day, to stand by the graves of my dogs in that valley by the river where the red fern grows. Yeah, just a really cool story to rip you up there at the end. But, you know, Dan got killed by the mountain lion and then Ann died of a broken heart for Dan.

Linton laid down by his grave and died. You can kind of hear that there. But, you know, dogs love passionately. A lot of animals do. A lot of them, when their owners pass away, they die of a broken heart.

You've heard of that. It was a really strong story of just the passion of this kid. I didn't talk about it enough, but those dogs obviously went with him everywhere. And it was more than just the coon hunting that they experienced together. But that whole thing about the red fern growing, I never knew what that meant until I saw the full movie. That red fern grows up between the two dogs' graves. And just, again, a really cool story. It doesn't link to my story other than I had a dog named Shep.

I've got stories I'll probably tell later as we get into it. And Lucy was my recent dog that I was really close to. They truly are man's best friend and it's hard to lose them. Yeah, it's fascinating that they choose those red ferns because anybody who's ever been out to the redwoods in California knows that those trees don't die. I mean, they're trees that have been. And so when you look at the kingdom of God, you know, you go, well, you've got dogs that, you know, 15, 16 years, they've gone a long, long, long time. But, you know, you've got trees that are literally thousands of years old and, you know, it's just fascinating that they use this contrast and they used it when it comes to children, right?

Because it kind of just feels like I still have that heart that is easily broken over the loss, you know, of what has happened through the curse, whether, you know, at whatever age that happens to you. If you grow close to someone or, you know, fascinatingly, a dog. And we talked about before we did the show that the word dog in Hebrew, you're probably not shocked that Robby knows what that is. And it's Caleb, okay? And the name Caleb, when you think about Caleb in the Bible, you know, clearly he was a very loyal, very determined, very strong and hearted individual, which all comes out of the letters that are in the name of Caleb.

But another thing that's about dogs from the standpoint of their name is their understanding. So, of course, we've got a boot camp coming. We've got a lot more show. What we have in our boot camp is something that makes you stronger and gives you the strength to go on your regular walk with God. It's something that will make you be bigger than you were when you got there.

How things been going since the last boot camp? Doing good growing. I've got growing pains. I came up here as a little boy falling down, getting up, and now I'm a cowboy ranger going into adolescent hood.

It's a pleasure to be here. So you're speaking about cowboy rangers. Is that one of the talks that really came alive to you this weekend?

Yep. I don't want to grow up real fast. I had to do that a long time ago. I'm just taking baby steps along this journey, and I can't think of any place or group of guys I'd rather be with because you are appointed and accountable for me to learn and listen. And I've got a notebook full of good tools that's going to help me grow.

Register today at masculinejourney.org. People say it's quite a way to heaven. Many miles beyond a distant star. Now I know that all thoughts go to heaven. But until we chase our dreams apart. Welcome back to Masculine Journey, and today we're talking about, you know, how do you deal with the loss of a pet?

And you're given this heart, and then you grow attached, and then the next thing you know, obviously 15, 16 years, or sometimes just two or three, and you lose that friend and that close companion. It's a difficult thing. Well, the reason why we have this topic tonight is, you know, Sam didn't have a topic.

He said, who's got a topic? And I was, well, I lost my dog last night, and it was a particularly difficult situation. And to give the quick story to it, Corgi was my father's dog, but he grew to be 16, was a great dog, and you may know my mother-in-law passed away recently, too.

So my father had passed away. He was very close to Corgi, and my mother-in-law just passed away. She was very close to Corgi, and now Corgi was at the point where he was, you know, failing, and his hips were giving out, and he could no longer walk. He was blind, and he couldn't hear, okay? So he's 16 years old, and he's in a tough way, and it's time, right?

But my wife, there's no way. She's just turning loose to Corgi without a fight, not unlike your personal story. And so we finally got her to take him to the vet and try to see what she could do about the hips, and he just got worse and worse. The really sad news is they gave him some medicine. I don't know whether it was medicine or it was just time, but Corgi started to have what I would call grand mal seizures on Sunday night. And he was grimacing, baring his teeth, and rolling all over. I mean, you had to see it foaming at the mouth. Everything you've seen in epilepsy in a person times about three from my perspective.

I've never seen anything quite like what was happening to him, and it went on from like 11.30 until 2.45 was the last seizure like he had like that, but they were every five minutes. And of course, my wife couldn't take it, and so she had to leave the room, and it was just me and Corgi, which you couldn't leave him going through what he was going through. And of course, my instincts were to take his life, which I could easily do, you know, because I harvest animals. I know how that's done, and I could make that decision, but I kept praying, and God said no. No, you take him to the vet in the morning and let them do it.

You know, that way it'll be like it should be. And as it turned out, my daughter Mariah came, which she was very close to Corgi, and my wife, and my wife actually got to hold Corgi as they euthanized him. And as I watched this whole scene, I could see why it was important. What God was teaching me was trust the process, Robby. That, you know, you could have put an end to Corgi's life and put him out of his misery, but that wasn't what Mariah needed.

That wasn't what Tammy needed. It was a process, and so interesting is I was trying to reason through how do I deal with this? This morning, you know, I climbed into Papa's lap, and I was praying, you know, God, where are we going today, because we'd finished up several studies I'd done. And he said, well, let's—he said, why don't you translate 1 Corinthians 13 back into English?

I mean, excuse me, from English back into Hebrew. He said, because I think you're going to see some things there that would help you. And so I began the process, very fun, of taking, you know, love is patient, love is kind, right? And I began to see what that was, and then again, I did a podcast out on this morning. Anybody who wants to listen to Christian Corgi podcast, I have all that described on what I learned.

But the thing about what I think is helpful, whether it's a child or it's a 67-year-old, you know, here's what I found helpful. Love is long-suffering, right? And God has put up with this curse for a lot of years, and I can't even— he went through a separation, you know, with his own son that's unthinkable, right? And so he gets it at a level I don't, you know, like, what are you talking about, right?

But it's a process because there's an outcome, right? And you might remember that when Moses passed in front of— I mean, when God passed in front of Moses and that whole scene, that God described himself to him. You know, the second thing he said was, I am slow to anger. It's the same word as long-suffering, right?

And it has to do with a long wing, right? Opinion is actually what that looks like in Hebrew, and the idea of the wings of time are going to create something that the painting is going to be unbelievable in the end if you trust. If you trust the painter, right? And therein lies faith, right? And what I needed to do Sunday night was trust God, and he came through.

It was sad, it was heart-wrenching, but I see now he was at it. So, you know, just to say that things are not always—you know, we have Kenny's story, which is, you know, a little bit different as far as what happened with you, right? Right.

Well, one comment I want to make before I go into this clip is, Robby, listen to your story and all. What come to my mind was talked about in Proverbs. Don't lean on your own understanding. In all these ways, acknowledge me, and I'll direct this. And that's what you just described, him directing you through this process, this grief, not just for you, and not just for the suffering of the puppy, but for your other family, because we're ripples. Right.

In each other's lives and all. But this next clip is where I did not do my homework about a pet. This is my son's pet.

I'm going to let you play the clip, then I'll talk about why I use— All right, here it comes. This has everything to do with his son and the crab. Here comes the son. Yeah, I thought it was all right. My son had brought a hermit crab back from the beach. And it was in the house, and it was, you know, air conditioned.

It was getting a little musky. I said, yeah, they were made to be out in the sun, so I took them out on the deck. And forgot I put the crab on the deck.

So, you know, I didn't really think about it till my son—I ran out for something, and he came back in. And he said, you know, where's my crab? And I said, I put him on the deck to get some sun, and he got, well, cooked.

Yeah, I didn't do my homework. I didn't know how to treat him. Was he soft-boiled? He was red. He was definitely burnt. He got toasted. And so, you know, take us through what happened with your son.

I mean, obviously, had he dealt with death before, or was it something? Well, some in the family, yeah, and all. And you don't get as close to a crab as you do like a dog or a cat. They kind of go in their shell when you try to pet them or mess with them.

They just want you to throw a little food in there. But he got a few good weeks before Dad didn't do his homework, you know. And, you know, I've learned the hard way several times.

I need to do my homework on taking care of not just pets, but people and myself. Oh, there you go. So, we want to get the chance to talk to Kerry, right? Yes. And this is his debut on the masculine journey.

So, tell us your thoughts. Well, as I'm sitting here listening as the show progresses on, I'm thinking, you know, humans, we as humans have evolved to where our care for pets or animals is so much tremendously better today than it was, say, when my dad was coming up. Now, and my mother as well, my dad was from a little town called Zip City, Alabama. So, with that name, you can imagine how small it was. My mother was from Blues Creek area of North Carolina. So, they didn't, and they was raised poor. They didn't have pets. They had working dogs. My dad, when they would go to the woods, if a dog didn't hunt after the third trip to the woods, well, they couldn't afford to feed the dog, so the dog just didn't come home. My mother, her dad was pretty much the same way, but he had a big farm, and he would train his dogs very well. I mean, he could look at one of his dogs and tell him to go get old Blue, and he'd go to the barn and let the mule out and bring the mule back to the field. But, you know, back in those days, if the dogs didn't work, if they didn't make their keep, then you couldn't keep them. Today, through God's infinite wisdom, he has given us technology, and that's one thing that I try my best not to overlook is God's ability to allow man to create technology.

Your case, you waited. You knew how to take care of the situation with your dog to end its suffering. But God has given man the technology to know how to put an animal down without the animal having to suffer any more than he has to.

And technology that God has given man is just tremendous. Yeah, it's something to see. So, you know, so David, you know, since we're getting the guests in on... He's not gonna let this one go.

The guest portion of the show, right? I mean, so animals, I mean, growing up, we had dogs and everything like that growing up and didn't really like cats. I mean, we had cats and wasn't a big fan. And so when me and my wife got together, she's had this, she calls it her emotional support kitty. And so she's had it. It was a stray cat running through a parking lot. And didn't really like anybody but her. In fact, it's still my night.

I'm not 100% sure. But the cat's taken to me. And actually, we were talking during the pre-show about Rodney was telling a story about a cat that was similarities to a dog. And this cat does the same thing. She jumps up on the counter and comes home and meows and, you know, just loves us well, plays fetch and sleeps in the corner of my armpit when I'm sleeping at night.

And just a big bald burnus, a burr. But, you know, we've talked about it. We had a dog that passed away back and I'll talk about that in the after hours. But, you know, my wife's big thing about when that cat, it's time.

She's like, oh, it'll be fine. We'll just take it to the vet and take care of it. And you're looking at it now.

That's not how that's going to go at all. You know, cat animals in themselves do bring us joy. But I think it also teaches us some of my word of the year, which is patience. So it all falls back to that. Yeah, it's interesting, isn't it? So, wow, you know, obviously with God, you know, we can figure out a way to console folks that are going through this. And, you know, it's us getting a picture of the price, you know, that we all are paying for what has happened with the fall.

But anyway, I want to remind you, obviously, one of the cool ways that we think you can help deal with life in general is to come to a boot camp. And we've got one coming up the week before Thanksgiving. Maybe Andy knows the exact dates of that. I think it's November 16th through the 19th. Good job. Everybody's shaking their head. November 16th through the 19th. This is the Truth Network.