Here's why we do it

Mark and I have lost three of our pets over the past three years.  In May of 2008, our beautiful prickly German Shepherd Sayla died suddenly of torsion - twisting of the stomach.  It was quite a shock and it look a long time before we stopped crying at the thought of never seeing her airplane ears (What's wrong Mom?  Why are you laughing so hard?  Is there anything I can do?  Is it time for bed?) again or having her play her all time favorite game - "Go to Mom, Go to Dad."  She hated people but she loved us and the simplest thing would tucker her out for hours.

Then last year Dylan our border collie developed cancer and died a month after diagnosis.  That month, watching him suffer was incredibly hard and in the end made the pain of putting him down more bearable.  His articulated rear end was stilled forever. 

Dylan hated other dogs, but loved Tina (our new German Shepherd), so we got her a new companion - Boone who loves people AND dogs (as does Tina).  Here's hoping they're with us for a very long time. 

Adorable is the word for Boone

T is the greatest camping companion,
even if she does go to bed at 4:30 pm.

Tina Angel

How can you resist that face?

Yesterday, we said goodbye to our first born - Raglan, who along with his litter mate Anzac was born a week before we arrived in the country.  He'd been fading over the past few months and weeks and we'd know for a few days that the time was now.  Raglan was my cat, as Anz is Mark's.

The cats put up with a lot over their 19 years
- including four dogs invading their space!

I'm sitting on the couch typing this, with space alongside for Rags because that's where he always was - on my left side, even in bed.  He was always so cold that he'd snuggle for warmth and since I was the softer touch and would adapt to him, I was the one he'd sleep with.

We always thought that Anzac would worry herself to death well before Raglan, but it turns out that she has a tape loop for a brain, so if something frightened her, she'll forget it in a nanosecond.  So now, at nearly 19, she still dashes around the house like a kitten, scaring Tina.  

Raglan always wanted to be an outdoor cat, so we thought we'd lost him forever when he disappeared for ten days one year. Thankfully he didn't go far and a neighbor called when we papered the neighborhood with flyers.  Once we moved to Arlington, he lived for laying in the sun on the porch.

Anzac will always find the latest thing to

lay on like a princess.

Anz and Rags were such incredibly cute kitts
with their Abyssinian ears.

Every time we've gone through the pain of losing one of our pets, we ask ourselves why we do this.  In the end though, the answer is simple.  We get far far far more pleasure out of their presence than we do pain from their absence.  And then we turn around and get another one, knowing that part of the responsibility of pet ownership is knowing when to let them go.  Somehow our lives haven't ever been complete without cats and dogs.

I've truly never understood people who don't have pets.  I also don't understand people who have children, so there you go - my maternal wires got crossed somewhere along the line.  We like to call children pet substitutes.  A little joke, but I think we're kind of serious too, considering what our pets mean to us. 

So, thanks Say, Dyl, Rags, Anz, Tina and Boone and all the cats and dogs to come in our lives.  And thanks to Jessie and Sam and Duke and Seven and Emma and Wrigley and Morty and Iris and Kara and Twilight and all our extended doggie family.  

Have you hugged a pet today?