COCOA BLESSINGS

Dear Angelic Blog Buddies:

For 19 years, I had the divine blessing of sharing my life with a sweet little Jack Russell dog named Benny. I gave him the name Benny, short for Benediction, because this dear little dog was truly a blessing sent to me by God; a heaven sent blessing.

Well, some of you may know that on January 4, 2010 my dear little Benny dog died. This year, days before January 4th, I found myself really missing Benny and thinking about him. After he died I had a work of art created from his ashes by a company called Art from Ashes. It's a beautiful little heart, which is so perfect because Benny will always have a special place in my own heart.

Now I am sharing this blog because something quite amazing occurred. Before I share this occurrence with you, I need to give you a little more background information.

During the end years of his life, Benny suffered from doggie alzheimer. He would at times walk in circles. When he went outside, he wouldn't make the connection of what he was to do outside; and so he would go outside and come inside and go to the bathroom. We turned our kitchen into his little bedroom with lots of cozy bedding for him; food and water. And since we were in the kitchen alot, he was always around us. It was our focus to keep Benny as happy and comfortable as possible.

Now as I mentioned above, even though we had a big backyard and would take him outside, he often times would just go to the bathroom in the kitchen. Sometimes at night, he would have such an accident in the kitchen, and the aroma would awaken me and I would come downstairs to find that Benny had walked in circles and had poo-poo all over himself and all over the kitchen floor.

My husband and I became very proficient at cleaning Benny and the kitchen floor. Believe me, I tried doggie diapers and that only upset Benny as he didn't like them and was confused by them. I don't want to dwell on the description, but trust me it was amazing how a little dog could make such a huge mess. Because of his continous movement he would cover the entire kitchen floor. Benny became an artist and the floor was his palette.

Now back to this year - 2011. As I shared, I was thinking of my little Benny and sending him love in heaven. On January 4th 2011, I also shared with Chuck my thoughts about Benny and reminding Chuck that this was the day that he died a year ago.

Chuck and I went out in the afternoon of January 4th. When we go out, we now leave Riot, our 15 year female Jack Russell in the kitchen; and Pinky the 5 year old is upstairs.

Chuck went into the kitchen ahead of me when we returned home. I heard him say, "You've got to come in here and see this; you are not going to believe it."

Now let me preface this by saying that Riot is a Diva Dog. She would never, ever think of making a mess. Nor would she destroy or tear up anything. She is much too prim and proper for such behavior.

In our kitchen we have a wooden cart with two shelves. On the top shelf was a box of instant cocoa packages. Riot (or Benny in spirit) had gotten into the box of cocoa packages; ripped open all individual packages of cocoa and shook the cocoa from inside the individual packages all over the entire kitchen floor. I am sure you are ahead of me already with the vision I am creating with my words. The kitchen floor was covered with chocolate brown cocoa. Wall to wall cocoa.

Chuck and I stood and looked at the kitchen floor in total amazement. Chuck looked at me and said, "I am pretty certain Benny had something to do with this." I agreed. I looked up to heaven and said, "Thanks, Benny. You knew I needed to hear from you."

Riot sat very daintily in her little doggie bed with absolutely no cocoa on her paws. True, she could have easily licked any cocoa off; but she had that look, "Don't blame me; I had nothing to do with this."

Chuck and I both laughed as we cleaned the kitchen up that this cleanup was a lot easier to clean than previous Benny cleanups.

I hope this sharing warms your heart and reminds you of how God knows the feelings of our hearts. May you have a beautiful day filled with heaven sent blessings.

Love and Cocoa Blessings,
Jayne