As usual, beautiful pictures. I’m trolling for some bloggy love as I spent a portion of the afternoon holding my beloved 13-year-old lab mix as he took his last breaths. You know, we understand when we get these creatures that we are going to out live them, but somehow that does not seem to resonate until days like today.

I spent a portion of the afternoon holding my beloved 13-year-old lab mix as he took his last breaths.

I swear ol’ Elmo did it the right way. After 10 years removed from the pound where he was a sickly, weak, pitiful creature, he leapt the back fence one night and never returned. Yes, the anxiety and worry were burdensome, but I knew the old boy had made his call and I quickly came to terms with it.

Not sure I could have held him to the end. Are we even capable of producing that amoumt of tears?

Wonderful photos as usual.

I spent a portion of the afternoon holding my beloved 13-year-old lab mix as he took his last breaths

Sorry about your dog. Nothing to do but love them while they’re here.

Fenway: quite a handsome guy, but…do girl dogs really go for those ears?

Oh sure, now the dogs are triangulating. No one wins at that game.

And while you know your will outlive them, nothing can prepare you for that day. My heart is with you.

I am so sorry Townser.

You have my condolences as well.

My wife and I went through this last year with Pepper the Wonder Hound, who had lived to 15 years +, even after having undergone a splenectomy at 6 and the removal of a golf ball-sized tumor from her hip at 9. She was pretty much the best dog I’d ever had. Even now, over a year later, thinking about that last trip to the vet makes me tear up.

We waited two months before we started looking for a new dog to adopt. Two of the longest months in my life, in a house that had always had a dog to welcome me home from work. And now, we have Angus P. Dundee, the 70lb lap dog. The sadness of losing Pepper will probably stay with me, but I can’t imagine going through life without a dog.

In that last pic, I believe they are posing for a James Thurber cartoon.

The Three Graces as drawn by Thurber, yes.

Umm, could Fenway look more devious in that third picture? [Hint: it’s a rhetorical question]

Wow, Fenway is only surpassed in the sheer volume of his wanton destructiveness by George Bush & Company.

We have a well-mannered gentleman of a cat in this household, so I’ve never experienced the level of vandalism only a puppy (or a drunken frat boy) can unleash.

But I have had kids. My ex and I used to have what was called the “Katie Line,” named after our first. It was an imaginary line on all the interior walls of the house that was “drawn” at the height of a toddler’s reach. Above it were kept all items that might prove dangerous to a child (e.g., cooking utensils, scissors, the bong) or any item of intrinsic or sentimental value (e.g., stereo equipment, books, the bong). Below it was kept anything that was completely indestructible or that we weren’t particularly attached to (e.g., toys, cast iron skillets, cement blocks).

Maybe you need a “Fenway Line.”

You have my sympathies. Our dog had to be put to sleep Monday.
Now, there’s a very skinny dog from the dog pound sleeping on a chair cushion at my feet. We just got a big love infusion.

Two words: Lupine harness

They replace it even if chewed–twice without a word of complaint for our Siberian Husky-chewed harness. The third time, I didn’t have the heart to go back to them again.

Absolutely, and especially the ones that have ears like them.