Nov 11, 2011 yesterday dave & i helped murray along to his next journey. i'm so thankful he's no longer in pain and feel very fortunate to have had him in my life. if you read this blog then you know what murray meant to me and will understand that i can't really say anything more right now. when i took this picture years ago i titled it "heaven sent murray" so it seems very fitting now...
;)
Jan 21, 2010 ;)
in the middle of december we took demeter, jewel and dooley to the vet for what we thought would be unremarkable annual check-ups for jewel and demeter and for a recheck of a large laceration carley inflicted on dooley’s flank. at that point i thought my biggest worry was whether dooley’s butt was going to heal okay. we walked out of the vet broken-hearted after finding out that demeter had a large mass in her colon and probably a few weeks to live. an ultrasound a few days later didn’t deliver any better news. we took her to our holistic vet for some antioxidants and herbs hoping to make her as comfortable as possible for as long as possible. the news was a bit hard to swallow as other than some constipation she was exhibiting no symptoms and to that point she seemed an incredibly vital, happy 14-year-old dog. i can say we enjoyed about a month of her continuing to show that vitality but on tues that ended and we said goodbye to our sweet demeter yesterday.
this has been a rough month for us and we’re hoping for some sunny days (literally and figuratively) ahead. demeter’s passing has left a large hole in our family – i’m sitting here feeling incredibly lonely even though at this moment i’m surrounded by a husband and 14 fantastic dogs (or more accurately 12 fantastic dogs and 2 rotten ones).
i know i’ve been very slack on my blogging these past weeks and the posts i have written have not been the light-hearted dog stories i’d like them to be but after a few days to regroup i hope to be back posting more regularly.
Dec 21, 2009 
this is not the post i want to be writing today but sometimes life gets in the way of what we want. today is astrid’s (seen here most recently) time and we are letting her go peacefully. this decision of allowing our animals to die with dignity and peace is one that i take very seriously and one that i wish we afforded people. it is an enormous decision and one that cannot be taken lightly. when we know the time is coming we agonize over whether we’ll know when it’s appropriate, hoping we haven’t let them suffer for our sake, and each time we’ve gotten there we’ve found the clarity we’ve needed. i am happy to be able to offer astrid this gift and to be able to hold her as she leaves but i am incredibly sad for the loss we’ll all feel when she’s gone. if you have a minute in your day please wish astrid peace.
