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<figure>Rocky in one of his many male model poses. (photo by John Merline)</figure>
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<p>We normally don’t use this space for personal announcements. That isn’t the purpose or mission of Issues & Insights. But, since we answer to no one but ourselves, we can break our own rules.</p>
<p>On Saturday, our family lost our 12-year-old Beagle, Rocky, to cancer. We didn’t even know he had cancer until a week before.</p>
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After a recent move, we’d taken Rocky to a new vet for a wellness check and mentioned that his eating habits had recently changed. Instead of his normal voracious appetite – so voracious that we had to buy a dish designed to slow down eating – he would occasionally turn his nose up at the food. We figured he was just getting old and cranky and picky, but the vet suggested blood work and X-rays.
When she saw a mass in his abdomen, she recommended getting an ultrasound at the nearby animal hospital. That was on Tuesday morning, May 5. By that evening, we learned Rocky had “multiple masses in his abdomen” and “a mass on the right side of his heart.”
Psalm 34 tells us, “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted, and saves the crushed in spirit.”
We offer it as a reminder that there is far more to life than politics and policy, pettiness and division. Take a moment to appreciate what you have around you. Because it could be gone in a flash.
And we will take this opportunity to remind anyone who would experiment on beagles that there is a special place in hell reserved for you.
John Merline
Veteran journalist John Merline was Deputy Editor of Commentary and Opinion at Investor’s Business Daily. Before IBD, he launched and edited the Opinion section of AOL News, and was a member of the editorial board of USA Today. He’s been published in the Washington Post, National Review, Detroit News, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Forbes, and numerous other publications. He got his start in journalism under the tutelage of M. Stanton Evans.
