Sadness away from home

This morning I woke up to a message from my Mom. It was 3:30am my time… so about 8pm their time. They had been on vacation and I knew they were getting home sometime soon. I just thought it was the usual "We are home" note. Sadly, not. A few years ago, my Mom somehow convinced my Dad to get a dog.

 We hadn't had a dog since I was little and she was given to my grandparents while we were temporarily living in an apartment. Grandpa would never give her up. LOL. Mom has always loved Poodles. Not my cup of tea but it's not my dog. One day they came home with a little ball of fur that mom claimed was a Party Poodle and they named him Max. It was too cute to be a Poodle! He had great colors. I couldn't believe my dad caved. But it was easy to see they both had fallen in love with him. I thought he was cute until he started looking like a Poodle. He was spoiled rotten but he knew that in our house, he had to follow our rules. The kids loved him because he was small and could play with them. At this time, our dogs were old and wanted nothing more than a pet and to sleep.

 So this morning, it was very sad to read that when my parents returned, they found a very sick Max. After a trip to the Emergency Vet, they found out Max had an incurable autoimmune disease that had pretty much destroyed most of his platelets and red blood cells. They made the very hard decision to put him to sleep. Max was still pretty much a puppy.

 So here I am again struggling with one of those moments that makes being so far away hard. I really don't know how people permanently become an expat. It hasn't even been a year and there have been so many times that I want to just jump on a plane and go home. I feel so sad for my parents. If I was home, we'd jump in the car and drive to KY so the kids could distract my parents. Even just for a little while. I liked my parents having a dog. They got out and walked. Basically gave them something to do, besides be annoyed with my brother.

 It is so sad to lose another member our our family.