While working in Minneapolis at the beginning of this year, 2010, I had to leave my two dogs at my house in Little Rock with some friends. Last month on February 20th, Dollie, my ten-year old lab-shepherd mix, accidentally got out and ran off. The following Friday, a lady came to the door of my house in Little Rock and my friend was there. She said she saw Dollie the previous Saturday. She said she stopped by the side of the freeway to try to save a dog in the middle of traffic. Unfortunately, she was unable to do so and the dog was run over and killed by a truck. She said she saw the missing dog flyer that my friends had posted all over the neighborhood. She recognized the dog from the picture, and she came by the house to tell us what had happened.

Dollie was a faithful friend to me and my Mom for 10 years. She is greatly loved. I want to thank all my friends who helped look for her last week and prayed for me and her. Because of all my friends’ efforts, we now know what happened to Dollie and why she did not come back to the house.

Dollie has been with me through some troubling times and many good times, and I will miss her. I had been away from her for two months. Since my mom’s passing last year, I had to leave her to take advantage of a good job out of town. I was planning on going back to Arkansas in a couple of weeks to bring her and Penny, my other dog, back with me to Minneapolis. My short contract here has been extended for six more months. I am so sad for her passing.

I do believe God blesses us with special friends in our lives who unconditionally love us no matter what. Dollie was that kind of special friend to me and my Mom during her life on earth. I honestly believe on the day she was killed my Mom turned around in Heaven and said, “Well, looks who’s here! Dollie, welcome home!”

To all my friends who have lost missing loved ones, if we believe there is a Heaven to gain and a Hell to shun, we will see them soon. Life on this earth is a short journey. We do not always understand why things happen the way they do. We also sometimes do not understand the timing of those events in our lives. Our faith and trust has to be in the creator of all things. No matter what happens we must trust God through all the heartaches in life. Through good times and bad times we must continue with our mission and purpose here to love one another. We are put here to help each other along the way. We must believe there is a time coming when sorrow, sadness, pain, suffering and death will be things in the past. For those us who put our faith and trust in God, we will overcome death and live in peace and joy in Heaven with our family and friends forever.

Dollie was an example for me of God’s unconditional love. She was his special gift to me in my life. I remember working in my home office many times and Dollie would come back and bring a tennis ball and drop it at my feet. I remember always seeing several balls there on the floor around my feet. When I would finally give in and say, “All right let’s go play ball!” I would pick up one of the balls and she would get so excited. She would bark and start jumping up and down and then run outside. I would follow her to our back yard and throw the ball for her. She would chase after it as fast as she could. Then she would run back with it and drop it at my feet, wag her tail and stare intently at me until I threw it again. I remember she would want to play for hours if I would let her. It did not matter to her if it was rainy or sunny. She seemed to say to me, “This is what is important to me, this is why God made me who I am, this is the true meaning of fun – being with someone you love, doing something you love to do and enjoying every moment of it while you can!”

I will miss you Dollie. Good bye best friend. I will see you and Mom again someday.

— James from Little Rock, AR