Happy. Healthy. Heathen.

Goodbye sweet girl.

We laid sweet old Boo in the upper pasture today, in a spot where it’s sunny in the morning, and shady in the afternoon.

She’s been with us for 13 years.  She has lived the doggiest of lives, and traveled more than most people.  She’s been to Colorado and back a few times, to Iowa and back multiple times, to Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Alabama, and North and South Carolina.  She raised 4 teenagers who will miss her desperately, and a 9-year-old who will remember her only as an old sweet girl who slept a lot.

She has served as comforter and confidant for everyone in our family at different times of our lives.  She has had the same spot under the dining room table in 2 different homes, and the same seat on the Ragbrai bus for years.  How we will ever pass that seat without a bittersweet memory is more than I can expect.

She has been called the Best Dog Ever by almost everyone who knew her.  At friends and family bonfires, she went from person to person to get her head stroked and her ears scratched.  She has put up with canine siblings, and was patient and tolerant of their puppy stages.

We know how lucky we have been to have known this beautiful member of our family.  We know she lived a long, lovely, happy, healthy life.  What we don’t know is how we’ll ever not feel the pain of her absence.

Anyone who has ever had a beloved pet knows how it feels to love and lose such a precious member of the family.  Since there are so few words that can describe those feelings, I’ve decided to let the pictures tell the story.

“No Matter how little money and how few possessions, you own, having a dog makes you rich.”