I got Dublin as a birthday gift the year I turned twenty. We picked her out of the litter because when we held her, she would stretch her legs out like a flying super hero. Her face used to be all black with little brown eyebrows and she had one white toe. She was always a good girl...not "good" in the traditional dog sense, I mean, as many of you know, she had her issues...we had to keep her away from strangers since a 100 pound dog lunging and snarling at you can pretty much make you pee your pants. But as a family dog, there was never a more loyal, gentle, sweet girl ever. I could trust her completely with the kids. They always climbed on her, pulled her lips way out and let them snap back, poked at her, kissed and hugged her. She loved having the tips of her ears stroked, and cheese. Sometimes she would sleep flat on her back, just in case anyone wanted to give her a belly rub. She spent almost every afternoon wandering around the backyard right next to Eli. He would just talk to her while they explored, or she would lie in the sun near him while he dug in the dirt. Ira's third word after Mama and
Dada, was
DubDog.
We had to have Dublin put to sleep this morning. She developed a virus that made all the muscles in her face swollen so she could not eat or drink. She also had cancer and the vet said that the huge steroid dose that may, or may not have helped her muscles relax would super-speed the cancer. It actually seemed as if, even if we hadn't have had her put down, she would have gone by the end of the day anyway. She couldn't see or even raise her head, although right before the vet did what she had to do, Dublin lifted her head and licked Justin's face once.
I have never had to do this before, even though I grew up with all sorts of animals, and lost pets. It was always my parents, or a car, or the butcher... One of the hardest things ever. I guess we must have seemed in pretty rough shape because even the vet was crying. She was just part of our family. I was really thankful that the kid was in school, and that this all happened quickly, not dragging on for weeks. It would have been terrible to watch her get worse and worse, and I knew it was coming soon, but still, it was so quick, too quick. We weren't ready. And tonight there are no toenails clattering up the stairs to her bed next to Eli's, No give-away collar jingle when she's sneaking a drink out of the toilet, No turn-turn-turn-thump-sigh as she lays down, no wet nose nudging my hand.
We buried her at Mom and Dad's, right above the patch of
flox and below the swing and maple tree. The bare patch of ground was covered with red and gold leaves by evening.
Goodbye Dubber
Doggie. We loved you. I am so sorry for all the times you got left behind because the
car seats take up so much room now. I wish I'd let you sniff the grass longer when I walked you in the rain instead of dragging you back inside. I should have let people feed you from the table more often when you begged. We could have taken you swimming more this summer because that was your favorite thing. I'm sorry you weren't in the family portrait I took last week, I wanted you to be, it just seemed like such a hassle to hang on to kids, camera, AND leash. I'm so sorry. You were a good, good girl.
And I had to add mine too...even though I still have to behead myself with makeup later on.
Home-made costumes! We had quite a time with The Baby's tail...it started out as only a foot long, but the material stretched as we stuffed it. He gets rather twisted up it it, which is pretty funny.
Trying to get back on track with the photo uploading! Here are a few shots from The Kid's last field trip...in the rain.
From a couple of weekends ago. Actually, I stole this photo from Chris and Kim's blog because even though the exact same picture is on my camera, it isn't on my computer yet! 
So, the reason I haven't been posting much lately is that my computer is jam-packed full and I have been putting all my photos on an external hard-drive. The problem is: the drive is all set up in our family room, where the heat hasn't been turned on yet...resulting in my not wanting to freeze my ass while I sort through pictures to post. I have lots of shots from Tamera and Kevin's visit, etc, but unless I go sit in cold storage, no way to put them on this blog. They are, however, on my flickr account. It's so much faster to upload things there, so I always put them there at the same time I take them off my camera. Today I drove for another school field trip to a pumpkin patch, yes, yet again in the pouring rain. It's a school policy, I think. All field trips may only take place in the rain. If you ever want to see something just totally CRAZY, take fourteen four year olds out to a muddy field in a downpour, and tell them to each bring back a big pumpkin. It seems clutching a slippery, filthy, giant pumpkin to your wet raincoated chest doesn't really work all that well. Who knew? Also, we were driven down to the patch on a wagon (lovely puddles on the seats!) behind a tractor going, oh, maybe 2.5 miles per hour. Good times were had by all. 
I got Dublin as a birthday gift the year I turned twenty. We picked her out of the litter because when we held her, she would stretch her legs out like a flying super hero. Her face used to be all black with little brown eyebrows and she had one white toe. She was always a good girl...not "good" in the traditional dog sense, I mean, as many of you know, she had her issues...we had to keep her away from strangers since a 100 pound dog lunging and snarling at you can pretty much make you pee your pants. But as a family dog, there was never a more loyal, gentle, sweet girl ever. I could trust her completely with the kids. They always climbed on her, pulled her lips way out and let them snap back, poked at her, kissed and hugged her. She loved having the tips of her ears stroked, and cheese. Sometimes she would sleep flat on her back, just in case anyone wanted to give her a belly rub. She spent almost every afternoon wandering around the backyard right next to Eli. He would just talk to her while they explored, or she would lie in the sun near him while he dug in the dirt. Ira's third word after Mama and Dada, was DubDog.
