| | After we lost Mochi, the house was incredibly quiet. The air was thick with grief, and Carolyn and I would be awash in tears intermittently throughout the day. After tidying up the house, we decided to donate Mochi's leftover food and treats to the local animal shelter in Seattle. While we were there, we decided to go inside and look at the dogs. Though there were quite a few cute ones, we weren't ready to bring any of them home with us. Over the course of the week, however, Carolyn and I began looking at dogs from the local shelters online, but nothing caught our eye. Though we weren't sure we were ready to get another dog, we figured it wouldn't hurt to look. I had the day off on Good Friday, and Carolyn doesn't work on Fridays, so we went to check out the local shelters again. After running some errands in the morning, we headed down to the shelter in Kent, where the Sakodas found Mochi some 13 years prior. Carolyn and I went to the back of the shelter where all of the dog kennels were and walked slowly down the aisle. Two particular black dogs caught Carolyn's eye, so we decided to take them out one by one to play in the yard outside. The first, named Ray, was a jet black year-old lab/chow mix. He was in a kennel with a far more aggressive dog and was extremely quiet and docile. While Carolyn was filling out the paperwork to allow us to play with him, I went back to the kennel to see him again. He was lying down in the middle of the kennel while the aggressive dog was sitting right at the entrance near the fence, so I beckoned for him to come forward to take a closer look at him. As he made his way forward, the other dog pounced on him and bit him hard enough to induce several yelps of pain. After a few yelps, the more aggressive dog let go and Ray stopped trying to make his way to the entrance. The aggressive dog stood over him, drool from his jaws dripping on Ray's back. I felt horrible. Once we got Ray out of the kennel, he was very friendly and mild-mannered, and Carolyn immediately took to him. He wandered around the yard adjacent to the shelter, sniffing around, his curious eyes taking everything in like a child seeing the world for the first time. We had a ball and tried a game of fetch, but Ray would only chase after the ball until something else captured his attention. We then took out the second dog, Suzy, a black lab/retriever mix with a white spot on her chest. As soon as she got out of her kennel, Carolyn found her tough to handle. She refused to sit, strained against her leash, and tired Carolyn out before we were even able to get outside. So, our decision was quickly made - either take Ray home with us, or go check out other kennels. I'm not partial to black dogs for some reason, so I wasn't particularly fond of Ray. He did have a great personality, but my hand smelled after petting him, and I figured since he was part chow (and chows are typically fragrant dogs due to more oil on their skin) he'd leave an odor around the house and on anything he rubbed up against. Nevertheless, Carolyn was insistent that this was the dog we should get, so I figured I should probably pray for some wisdom. Now I know this is not the most theologically proper way to go about doing this, but I told God that if Car said she wanted Ray at an "8" or better on a scale of 1-10 then we would bring him home with us. After my brief prayer, I asked Car how badly she wanted Ray, and she paused, then said, "...well, I guess a 7 1/2..." (relief flooded my heart and I mentally prepared to leave the shelter)..."...or 8." At this point I thought to myself, "well, she DID say 7 1/2 first..." and "...she doesn't know about what I had prayed about anyway!" Nevertheless, she did say 8, and we decided that we would take Ray home with us. 
Once we got Ray home, our next step was to give him a proper name. After all, the only reason he was named Ray was because he didn't actually have a name on his paperwork at the shelter. Since he was a stray, the animal control officers named him by crossing out the letters "s" and "t" on his information page. After referring to him as "Inverse Mochi" for a little while due him having the opposite coloring from Mochi, Carolyn chose "Kuma" as a perfect name for him. He has HUGE paws from his chow roots, and his mouth droops in the corners just like a bear, so Kuma fits him perfectly since it means "bear" in Japanese. 
It's now been a few weeks since we adopted him from the shelter, and he has been a huge blessing to us. We got him not to replace Mochi, but to help us through the grieving process, and God has used him to do so much more than that. It is remarkable how many similarities he shares with Mochi - both were from the same shelter in Kent, both were adopted as 1 year old pups, both were strays, both were 35 lbs, and both are the friendliest dogs you could ever meet. Kuma seems to share many of Mochi's idiosyncracies, and Mochi remains alive in our memories because Kuma reminds us of some of the things that he used to do. However, since he's a much younger and far more agile, I need to take him for runs every day...and he's also able to jump up on Car when she's asleep on the couch! Not only does he bring joy to our home, but he's also helping to keep me in shape! 
Carolyn and I consider ourselves incredibly blessed. Not only does Kuma have a terrific personality, but he's already housebroken as well! He rings a bell on the door any time he needs to go out, and aside from an accident the first morning after we brought him home, he hasn't gone to the bathroom indoors since. And as far as him having oily skin and smelling up the house, it turns out it was just the drool from the other dog on his back that made him smell - I actually like the way he smells! You could chalk it up to "luck" that we would find such a terrific dog after losing Mochi, but we believe it is yet another example of God showing us how deeply involved He is in our lives, providing us just what would help us most in our time of need, on Good Friday no less. Hopefully you'll get to meet Kuma sometime soon! 
 
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