Goodbye Lady

Today was a sad day at the Ortiz household. About 5:30 this morning Mike sat up in bed and said "I heard someone call my name.........it was clear as day". I just said "Strange...maybe someone is trying to tell you something". So he left for work, but soon after he left I heard a loud horrible screaching noise coming from outside. I ran outside to find Mike's oldest dog lady stuck in our rose bushes. This is very odd as they know not to go by those bushes. Lady has not been feeling well and from my "country" past I knew she had probably gone behind them to pass quietly. I grabbed our shears and cut the branches back slowly and pulled her out. When I gently sat her on the ground she fell over. I knew at that moment that someone had been trying to tell Mike that his dog was needing him. So I took Lady inside and called Mike in tears. I then cleaned her off and pulled out a nice hospital blanket for her. I laid her head on a pillow and patted her. I asked Em if she wanted to wake up and come tell Lady goodbye and she did. I called into work and explained I was going to wait for Mike to get home and that I didn't want to leave the dog. Jude's nurse helped pat and console lady with kind words. Lady had several seizures and was in a lot of pain which made me very sad. When Mike got home he immediatly burst into tears which made me cry. So he asked me to go with him to the vet and together we put dear old Lady down. The "terrorists" have caused me a lot of grief throughout my marriage to Mike, but they are still family. I still sneak all my scrap leftovers to them, I secretly make them little pancakes when I make ours, I bring them treats and Mike rolls his eyes, and I laugh when they do funny things. They are the entertainment of the neighborhood with our house backing up to trails. When people walk by the howl like fog horns.....and lady was the loudest. She had a scrunched up face where her mom bit her as a baby, but rather than letting her owners put her down Mike took her home. He gave her 15 years more than anyone else wanted to and he really loved her. My heart ached more for him than it did Lady because I knew she was no longer in pain.

Spot had to tell his mom goodbye.

Mike took his dog home and buried her in our butterfly garden.

After the dog was laid to rest I went to work. Mike took the rest of the day off to get Jude's cyst on this neck looked out, which turned out to be okay (thank goodness). A bit later in the day I received a text from Mike that said "Um it's storming" with this picture.

I was on the phone with my corporate office and I just cracked up! Spot and Jack are known for hating storms!! If you have followed my blog you know this. In the house they start going insane and tear things up and outside they escape. So Mike had to chase down his two wet little dogs and bring them home. Mike took them in the garage for a bit where they terrorized a wild black cat that had taken shelter from the storms. The poor cat still will not come down from the top of Mike's tool bench. I just looked at Mike and smiled and we had one of those emotionally complete moments where everything comes to a close in a perfectly humorous but sad and fitting way.