The dog that brought our family together

This is Cameron.

The folks had him for a week. They'd taken him in from a family in Central Jersey who kept him in a cage all day and couldn't care for him properly. They loved him.

The story isn't funny, or first-person plural storytelling-worthy or anything. It's more about what happens when awful, tragic things happen to good people.

See, I was holding Cameron's leash when he wiggled out of his collar and bolted across the street yesterday.

He was hit by a car and died a few minutes later. I'll spare you the rest of the story other than to say that for the last 24 hours, I've been reliving every single second leading up to when this happened. Everyone says it wasn't my fault, and that these things happen for a reason.

Maybe, in time, I'll believe that.

This morning, Christmas morning, my dad told a story about a sermon he once heard years ago. The minister said he came upon a man standing in his garden, looking forlorn and digging his hands through his pockets, clearly not interested in the world around him. The man was so devastated by his loss that he was simply giving up.

The man told the preacher his dog had died, and the preacher took a moment to ask him if he loved his dog.

"Yes," the man said.

The preacher than said it's in loving things that we all suffer true loss, but that the trick about life is you kind of have to go through it loving things, and losing things, and loving things some more.

I knew Cameron for five hours. In those five hours, an 11-month-old yellow Lab with a turned-up smile taught me, and my family, so, so much.

I'll forever blame myself for not stopping him. For not doing enough to prevent him from getting away.

But I will forever recognize the importance of friendship and family every day.

I guess that's the lesson Christmas tends to bring -- but most of the time it's in empty words and rhyming cards.

This year, it came in reality. I wish we didn't lose Cameron for me to recognize that.

I hope you all had a safe and warm Christmas holiday. And for those who don't celebrate Christmas, I hope the faith you believe in, and your faith in humanity and in the ones you love, is as strong today as it's ever been.