With each one of my children I learned
something from them that I have held deep in my heart. One of the things I
learned from raising Dallin was the depth of love a person can have
for an animal. I had a lot of pets growing up, ones I loved and spent
a lot of time with but nothing has ever compared to watching Dallin with
a guinea pig named Harry. It touched me.
We had a family who attended our church who
had Harry for a pet. They got tired of all the work it took to take
care of him. They asked us if we wanted to take him. Dallin had just
turned eight years old and he wanted a pet badly for his birthday and he begged me to let him have Harry. He promised he would take good
care of him. I folded to the pressure and Harry was delivered to our house. It was love at first
sight between Dallin and Harry. We fixed up a cage for him and he became an adopted member of the family. Dallin loved Harry. I
have never seen a child love a pet more than he loved Harry and by
this time we had had a lot of pets come and go at our house; mice,
hamsters, cats, lizards, turtles, fish, birds, mice, etc. Dallin
spent all of his free time with Harry. He would do his homework with
him and take him where he went in the house. He fed him well and he
would take him outside to eat the grass on warm summer days. He would even give him a bath every week. It was a familiar sight to see Dallin
with Harry asleep in his lap. Harry now loved Dallin as much as
Dallin loved him. They had forged a strong bond of love.
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| Dallin and Harry |
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| Harry being cuddled after a bath |
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| This was taken on the last day of his life. Harry was eating grass while I trimmed some mattes out of his hair. |
Then almost a year later, in June,
Dallin gave Harry his weekly bath, fed him and put him to bed for the
night. When we got up the next morning Harry was dead. Dallin was
devastated and held Harry all morning and cried. He didn't want to
bury him. I finally convinced him that we had to bury Harry. We made
him a pretty little coffin with a soft inside and buried him in our
pet cemetery, which had grown quite large over the years from all the
pets we had had. Dallin painted Harry's gravestone and we had a
beautiful funeral and put some pretty flowers on his grave. Dallin was so choked up he couldn't talk so I did my best to give a loving speech of our time with Harry. It was a very sad day.
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| Dallin made Harry's headstone |
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| I have never seen a sadder little boy |
I thought after the funeral and a
few days Dallin would be fine and he would be able to go about his
summer being a happy kid, free from school to play. I tried to plan
fun things for all of us to do to get his mind off his grieving. None
of it helped. Every morning and spare minute I would find Dallin sitting by the empty
cage or out by Harry's grave with swollen red eyes. He was having a lot
harder time than I thought he would. The days turned to weeks and the tears were still flowing every day. I prayed over how to help him
feel better. I kept feeling like Dallin just needed another
pet to love to fill the void left by Harry.
I took Dallin to the pet store and
the first animals he wanted to see were guinea pigs. The pet store
had quite a few. The guinea pigs would try to bite us and they didn't want
to be held. Harry had been so sweet and cuddly that these pets were
just not the same. We went through the store and nothing seemed to be
working out. My heart sank. I dreaded taking Dallin home to his
misery. I knew I just couldn't stand to see him crying by Harry's
grave anymore. We left the store and we started watching the cats playing in
the outside window of the store. The cats were expensive and we were on a tight budget with six children. I said a quick silent prayer in my
head, “Please Heavenly Father, help me find a way for Dallin to
feel better. I just can't stand to see him so sad.” I had just finished this little prayer in my head when a lady with a pet carrier
came up to us and asked us if we were thinking about buying a cat.
She had in her carrier four baby kittens. We sat down on the floor of
the mall outside of the pet store and she let Dallin hold the
kittens. One of them quickly climbed in his lap, cuddled up and fell
asleep. Dallin and this little kitten both fell in love with each
other at that moment and my prayer was answered. The pet store owner
at one point came out of the store and said to the lady with the
kittens, “You aren't giving those kittens away are you?” because
she regularly sold them to him. She told us she wanted the kitten to
have a home where it would be loved and she gave it to us for free.
This lady and kitten were the answer to a mother's prayer. We took
the kitten home and I saw the cloud of sadness lift as Dallin soaked
up loving this new pet. He named her Cuddles. Dallin and Cuddles
spent a lot of time together and this little kitten would spend a
long time just licking Dallin's face and hair every day. They loved each other.
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| Dallin and Cuddles |
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| Dallin smiling again |
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| Cuddles would lick Dallin for long periods of time |
Cuddles grew up and she went on to
have two batches of kittens. We also got a lot of fun out of them. I
was always touched by Dallin's love for animals.
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| This cardboard cat was made by Brett. Brett and his friends liked to put it out in the street to watch cars drive around it thinking it was a real cat in the dark. This kitten was always inspecting this fake cat. |
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| This kitten loved to do tricks |
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| This is a cat we got from a shelter. It was a cat in bad shape with open wounds. It followed us around in the animal shelter purring. We just had to take him home. |
This wasn't the only
way Dallin showed compassion and love. I will write more in my next chapter. I will forever remember Dallin's love for Harry and Cuddles. It touched my heart.
