Near Tears

I took the boys on a field trip today and had a wonderful time. It was a great field trip; the kind that ranks high and is enjoyed by child and adult alike. Afterward, several of us stopped at a restaurant to eat a late lunch. I turned my phone back on and almost immediately had a call from Hubby.
"I'm getting ready to order; can I call you back in a minute?"
"No! Emma is in the field and her tongue is out and she isn't well!"
The sweet goat was sick, and off to home I headed. I left the kids with friends so they could have lunch. On the way home I called Hubby to suggest baking soda and water, to tell him where the needles are in the fridge, whatever I could think of. I was nearly home when he called me back.
"She is dying. She is crying and twitching and having a hard time breathing," he quietly said. I could hear her panting in the background.
"I'll be there as soon as I can be."
"She's gone."
And just like that it was over. I don't know what happened, if she ate something bad, or was just sick, or it was just time, or maybe had a snake bite... I just don't know. But as fast as it started, it ended.
Life is so precious and so fragile. You call goodbye and head out the door never suspecting that this will be the last time you speak. I have no more to say; it is what it is.
So what is there to be thankful for? Friendships end, relationships change, death comes in many fashions. The gratitude is that I knew love before it was lost. It truly is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.