Monday, September 18, 2006

Friends

I'm sorry for the brief absence but the last two weeks or so have been difficult and time consuming. First, we had to euthanize our dog. She's been a part of our family for 16 years and I'm sure I don't have to tell you how difficult it was to make that decision. The only thing that made it bearable was our veterinarian's statement when he saw her. He said she looked worn out from all the pain. We probably should have let her go 6 months ago, but we just couldn't find the courage. I'm going to miss that little white Westie. She was like one of my children.

We barely had time to adjust to our dog's absence when family arrived from England to spend a week at our house. I work from home and I told myself it would be a cinch to get up a little earlier and do some work, post something on my blog, and entertain my guests the rest of the day. It only took one day for me to realize that was unrealistic. We live in the country and anything worth doing or seeing is at least an hour or more away. By the time my head hit the pillow at night, getting up earlier than usual was not a priority.

To complicate things even more, we had agreed in advance to drive our friends to Pittsburgh this past weekend via Niagara Falls. We have family in Pittsburgh and our guests are spending this week with them. Anyway, I found out it is almost a thousand mile car trip to go from the Flint area to Port Huron to Niagara Falls and then through New York to Pittsburgh and back to Flint again through Ohio. We left on Thursday and got home last night to an empty house, and the realization that our dog was gone hit me like a ton of bricks all over again.

So, that explains my absence. Thanks for leaving comments while I was gone. I'll be back to posting again soon.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh Kathy, I'm sorry to hear about Westie :( That must have been so hard for you and your family. My sincerest condolences to you all.

I was going to leave a comment just this morning to see what was going on, but you beat me to it with this post.

Sorry to hear the sad news - take your time, the blogs not going anywhere ;-)

His Honor the Mayor said...

I too am sorry for your loss. As a sometimes unwilling co-habitant with many animals adopted by my kids, I know how awfully important they can be to us. Take your time.

Kathy said...

Thanks for the kind words Mike and HHTM. I was feeling pretty miserable yesterday since I constantly faced the realization that my daily routine has changed. I no longer have to let the dog out, give her a treat or trip over her in the kitchen. It will just take time to get used to her being gone.

On the plus side, getting back to my normal routine is helping to improve my mood - to a degree. I already posted something about Bush and his lack of concern or compassion for low income Americans. My dog would have been attentively listening to me as I talked to my computer screen and typed. I could always depend on her to agree with me too!!

Anonymous said...

I'm so sorry to hear this news, Kathy. She had a long life and I'm sure a good life in a loving family. Your decision was a final act of kindnes to her.

And if you need to get your mind off of it for a while, try channeling the emotion into hate for De Vos. ;-)

Kathy said...

Abi, thanks for the kind words. I think of my decision as a final act of kindness too.

You're right about channeling my energy into DeVos, except I don't hate the man. I almost feel sorry for him. I learned a long time ago that people who seek to control others and mold them in their own image are unhappy people. I don't want our state governed by someone who only seeks to exert his own will and not bide by the will of the people.