After thinking all day about the sad end to Tangle this morning, I’ve come to the conclusion that there are two lessons to learn from the experience.

First: Even when you do everything right, sometimes bad things happen. Sometimes unfortunate things happen and we are not to blame in any way. It just happens. This is true of lots of things in life.

Second: We should enjoy and appreciate the good things in our life every day, because we don’t know how long we’ll have them. I know this sounds like a morbid thought, and one that could fill me with great depression. But instead, I’d like to think that I could just savor the moments I have, knowing that life is unpredictable. Just last night Tangle was sitting with Laura while she was watching t.v., and he was having a great time pulling at the drawstring on her sweats. The kids were laughing and saying that Tangle had found a worm, and he was greatly entertained with that string for a long time.

How many times have I not taken a photo or a video because I figure I’ll have lots of time to do that in the future? Way too many times. I wish I had taken more photos of Tangle. We have some, but I thought I’d have many years to get good photos of him. Little did I know he’d be gone so suddenly. Last night Laura showed me how Tangle would sit on the hand-towel rack in the bathroom. He fit so perfectly on the silver loop, and looked quite entertaining…but I didn’t take his photo.

I try not to think of how my life could change in an instant, because it’s an unsettling thought. But the experience with Tangle this morning reminded me in a gentle way that I should not take for granted the people (or animals) in my life. In an instant they could be gone and life would be forever changed. What would I wish I had done differently?