A Tribute to Gibby

Gibby was my mother and father-in-laws' dog, and they had to say good-bye to her last week on account of her failign health.  Gibby came to them as a foster dog in late 1998.  She had gotten into a fight at the local dog shelter, and she needed a place to recuperate from her injuries.  Her injuries are what inspired her name - she was chewed up like giblets.  Thus the name Gibby (pronounced Jibby).  After some time, she recovered, and she found her way into our hearts.

Gibby was a lab mix, and she loved to do the things that Labradors like to do.  She chased squirrels, birds, and rabbits.  Much to my mother-in-law's dismay, she even caught a few birds.  Once, after it had rained, Gibby saw her opportunity to catch a live crawfish.  She was successful, and she ate her prize whole.  Unfortunately, that is not how crawfish are meant to be consumed, and she was sick for a day or two. One year when James and and had gone to visit his parents for Easter, his mom, Fay, had made a batch of sugar cookies.  There weren't just regular sugar cookies, though.  The Easter bake sale for the Humane Society was approaching, and these cookies were shaped like bunnies, iced and decorated.  They were adorable.  Fay had placed them on small trays and put them on the dinning room table so the icing could harden just a bit before the bake sale the next day.  Each tray held six cookies.  The next morning when we got up, there were three cookies missing from one of the trays.  Fay assumed James was the culprit - perhaps he had gotten hungry in the night and had the cookies for a snack.  Then she saw crumbs on the floor and realized that it was Gibby who had stolen the cookies!  At least one dog benefited from those cookies, even if they couldn't be sold for the Humane Society.  We all got a good laugh out of Gibby that day.

Gibby was generally a quite dog for most her life.  She did not bark much.  One night when I was there visiting, I had taken her outside to feed her.  She got so animated knowning she was about to get her Alpo.  I reached for the can to open it, and she barked.  It startled me a little, because I don't think I had ever heard her bark up close like that before.

We will all miss her.  My dogs will miss her too.  Anytime death shows its painful head, I think of the Narnia Chronicals by Lewis.  In the last book, the world has been renewed and life is as it should be, no sin, no pain, no death.  Man and beast live peacefully together.  We have the promises of God to cling to that the world will be remade and there will be no death someday.

Isaiah 65:25
"The wolf and the lamb will graze together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox; and dust will be the serpent's food They will do no evil or harm in all My holy mountain," says the LORD.  (NASB)