The Power of CUDDLES

Cuddles has been a gift from God.  The word cuddle means: a prolonged and affectionate hug.  Well we have enjoyed that prolonged and affectionate hug for 16 1/2 years.


Many of you know our journey but some of you might not.  We worked in South America for 15 years.  While we were on our last home assignment, due to the unrest in the area our ministry shut down.  We were not able to go back as a family and have any kind of closure.  We also lost everything we owned: our house, things, pets,  a ministry we loved, relationships that would now not be a part of our every day life, and the list goes on.  We resettled in Ontario but that was a hard adjustment as we were grieving from all the loss we had been experiencing and Ontario just did not feel like home.  


Titus really missed our pets in Venezuela and we started praying about getting a dog.  We did not research types of dogs or anything we just knew with having people and especially a lot of children in and out of our house we would need a smaller dog.  Before we knew it we found this little puppy who became our Cuddles.

We knew nothing about transitions, grief and loss or how therapeutic dogs were.  Our Cuddles brought so much healing to our family.  Over the years our Cuddles has been so much a part of our lives.  She lived with us in jungle camp, went on road trips, and has been there for birthdays, Christmases, graduations, and even in Vern's recent health crisis Cuddles was there with us in VA.   When Vern's dad died I was away at a conference and Cuddles followed Vern around the house and stayed by his side to help comfort him and as she knew something was wrong.  As our family has grown our grandchildren have been able to build some fun memories with Cuddles.

Cuddles health has been declining but in the last five days she went very rapidly and yesterday we had to say good-bye to our beloved Cuddles who had become such a part of our lives.  We have shed MANY tears already but after 16 1/2 years of her being such a part of our lives here in Ontario we can not even remember life without her.  So as we go through these next days and weeks it will be quite an adjustment as we miss her already. I will be keeping a box of Kleenex  close at hand.