I haven’t been blogging much this month because I am participating in NaNoWriMo.  Tonight, though, I want to share a little something.  It’s not really a little something, but rather a big something.  Anyone reading this blog most likely has dogs, and has lost one and knows a person can get a little irrational, emotional, fill in the blank, when the time comes to let a beloved friend, dog child, go.  I’m going through the gamut of feelings, replays, what I should have done, could have done, didn’t do, did do, etc. now.  Tears come and go at the most inappropriate times.  I only confided to one person at work for that very reason.  She is a vault and wouldn’t bring it up again unless I do. That keeps crying to a minimum there.  Elsewhere, unless something jars my memory, I can keep my mind away from the very recent experience of letting my Ginger go.

I had a beautiful red Dobie named Ginger I rescued 4 years ago next month.  She hadn’t been spayed when I got her and she was 6 years old.  I actually pulled her out of a cage in the euthanasia room at Miami Dade AC.  They’d been trying to get a rescue to take her, and I had just heard about her the morning of her euthanasia day.  She had mammary lumps, which a vet removed for me, but didn’t do a very good job.  She told me no cancer, but there was.  By the time I found out, it had moved to her lungs.  Ginger hung in there for two years, but had a very lumpy body and in places that were uncomfortable.  Her quality of life was good, though, until Monday night.  Suddenly breathing became laborious.  She fought for every breath.  She had a horrible night, and though I prayed for a rebound, this time it didn’t happen.  I took Tuesday off work and took her to the vet and stayed with her though the euthanasia.  Ginger was a beautiful Dobie and would have made a spectacular agility dog.  I told her to come back in a healthy body and find her way back to me.

These two pictures were taken on November 8.  She was happy and playing with her favorite red Dobie Boy, Bouchard.  I’d never have thought just two days later, she’d be heading to Heaven’s Gate.

Until we meet again, my sweet Ginger.