Unexpected Goodbyes

When you decide to get a dog, you consider a number of things.  What temperament best fits your family, how big they will grow, how easily they can be trained, how good they are with children, and face it, how cute you think they are.  And when you bring home that perfect little puppy, you can’t help but be consumed by the little bundle of fur, the pouting eyes, the puppy breath, the softness of their ears, and their pure love for life as they slip and slide down the hallway, still not completely in control of their limbs.  They become your everything and you never, ever look back.  

But what you forget to consider, what you knew but quickly dismissed, is that their lives, their life with you, is short.  Too short.  Incredibly short. 

We only got 7 short years with our girly-girl.  But what she gave us in those 7 years is astounding.  She loved us unconditionally.  She loved our children unconditionally (even though with each of their births she got a little lower on the totem pole).   She made us laugh every time she tucked her butt and ran through the snow.  She made us furious every time she snuck a piece of who knows what off the ground and ate it.  She snuggled into bed with us as we slept in our freezer of a bedroom in Charlestown.  She loved her new family after we moved to China.  And she smiled that Pokey smile until the very end.

She wasn’t just our dog, she was our family.  

 And she will always be our one and only girly-girl.