Meant to Be - A Gator tale

After the loss of our beloved eight year-old Labrador retriever Gator, my husband and I were devastated. Only pet lovers can understand the feelings of loss and sadness when you lose a pet who is a member of your family.

We lost Gator on my husband's birthday. John adored Gator just as much as I and we took his passing very hard. The day after our loss, John and I went for a ride, we cried, and spoke of all our beautiful memories.

My husband was questioning how God could take something so precious away from us way so soon. We adored our dog, so did our neighbors and our family. Through our tears while driving home, we observed a huge beautiful rainbow overhead. John had remarked that he didn't remember the last time he had seen a rainbow and it ended in the direction of our home. In that moment, I remembered a poem called Rainbow Bridge that was given to us when our Golden retriever had passed away many years ago.

When we got home, I searched for the poem, hoping I had saved it to show to John. After much searching, I found it and brought it to him, there was a huge rainbow on the piece of paper along with the poem and he read it. With tears in our eyes, we both knew that we had our sign that Gator was safe, happy and not in any more pain. He wanted us to know he was now in God's loving embrace and to not to grieve his passing but celebrate his life and our precious memories as a family.

The holiday season was upon us and in our Christmas cards from neighbors and friends, they included Lab classifieds as well as printing lab rescue sites. I think they knew we were meant to be 'doggie parents' and wanted to push us along. We were lonely, Gator wasn't our whole life but he did help make our lives complete. We missed everything about him especially our ritual of Gator and I taking a walk or jog and John swinging by to pick us up in the truck and go for a ride. Gator loved going down the back roads checking out the squirrels and birds with the wind whipping through his floppy ears.

I started searching on-line for breeders and one particular dog caught my interest. There was a four-month old yellow lab that had been sold and the breeder decided not to let him be adopted by the original owner. He was a bit older than usual, but to me, that was a good thing. The dog was about 75 miles away from our home and we had made an appointment to see another yellow lab in that area.

I showed John the ad when I got home that evening and he said he wanted to go to the furthest location first, so we called the breeder of the four-month old, made an appointment, and on we went. We got to their home and I fell for the precocious four-month old. He had the same coloring as Gator, gave wet kisses, and he just felt right.

We took him on the spot and he slept all the way home. My husband named him Jake, we brought him home and our house became a home again. We forgot what it was like to have a puppy. He is full of life and inquisitive about everything. He loves to walk, chase squirrels, go for truck rides and is a good kisser.

He is a joy and a pistol and looks just like Gator except for his black eyes and nose. John kept noticing similarities between Jake and Gator, his marking, his coloring, and his habits. I kept telling him that all labs must have similar characteristics and it was nothing unusual.

One day I had his AKC registration papers from our breeder to send off and was looking through his genealogy. I noticed that in his background Jake's great grandfather's name was also the name of Gator's father. Thinking there was no way they could possibly be related, but I was curious and hopeful and excited at the possibility that this could be true. I still had Gator's registration papers so I checked his lineage. Incredibly, they were related. When I got home, I started thinking about looking again at the paperwork because I just knew there was still more to the story. I hadn't even looked at the female side of his lineage but when I did, I found that Jakes grandfather actually came from the same litter as Gator. We were stunned and once again this was another sign to us that some things are just meant to be.

I contacted the breeder and told her of my findings and she was also amazed. She still has Gator's brother Oreo, a black lab, and said that in all of her litters they never had a dog the color of Jake and we were meant to have him in our family.

I believe in fate, Gator's love, God's goodness and the promise of eternal life. We found our way through the sorrow and pain. I believe that sometimes the stars do align and things happen for a reason. We were blessed to have had Gator in our lives have been enriched in so many ways because of him. I know he is smiling down on us and that a part of him is with us in Jake.

submitted by Bobbi Diefenbaugh