We’re not sure on the circumstances surrounding Kermit’s death. All we really know is that she got out of the house around 3 on Tuesday afternoon and was struck by a vehicle on the road right in front of our house.

I’m sure there was very little suffering based on the amount of carnage. We don’t know anything about the vehicle or the driver, but I wonder if it might have been a school bus that goes by about that time.

I wasn’t home when this happened. My mom was tending Lucy and Eli when it happened. She didn’t know what had happened until a neighbor came to the door and asked if it was our dog.

Brad, a neighbor, cleaned up the mess on the road before I got home. All that was left of Kermit by then was a large stain on the asphalt.

The kids, and even Christine to an extent, have handled the death reasonably well compared to me. I guess I’ve handled it a lot better than some people would. I’ve never been a big mourner, I think it’s a combination of my faith in an afterlife and maybe a little stoicism, fatalism, and determinism all thrown in for good measure.

Nonetheless, I am painfully aware of how quiet the house now is and how lonely it feels when I walk in the door and Kermit isn’t there to greet me, to jump up, “hug” me and play with me.