Those Eyes...

As many of you know, our sweet dog Cherry is gone. We had to put her down January 3, 2011. I will always have a special place in my heart for her. I had totally forgotten that I had posted about her back in December. (See Dog Breath.) It turns out that bad breath was caused by something much worse than tartar or tooth decay. The vet believes she had cancer of the kidneys and probably went into full renal failure about a week or so before. It was unexpected and devastating. She was Clint and I's first dog and only animal before children. For that, she is special to us. We did everything we could with her from vacations to just strolling around the neighborhood. I thought I would post a few of my favorite memories with her.

Bath time. Cherry hated it. But it was fun for us because she would run around the house like a mad woman. She would jump all over the furniture and get her wet hair on everything. I think she did it to spite us. She was quite ornery.

We took her for lots of walks. She hated water most of the time but when it was really hot she would start looking for it. She drank a lot. When she happened on this puddle on a really hot day she just went ahead and sat in the water while she was drinking it. It was pretty funny.

Cherry also hated Duke. He was loud, high energy and playful. All things Cherry couldn't stand. If you look closely, Cherry (who weighed 48 pounds) is taking up most of the backseat while Duke (who weighs about 80 pounds) has a very small space to fit into. This was on the way home from Abilene so Cherry would go to sleep and Duke was just stuck standing there the whole trip. He tried to go to sleep but he couldn't get comfortable because of Cherry. It was pretty funny.

This was the only time Cherry ever (voluntarily) swam. Like I said, she hated water. This was on another one of our long walks on a hot day. It was probably high 90's that day and we had walked probably 2 miles or so. We were at the Trinity Trails so we decided to take the dogs down to the river so they could get a drink. Before we knew it Cherry had gotten in and was taking laps. She would swim and drink at the same time. Eventually, she got out and just sat on the shore. But that was a great memory because we had tried to get her to like the water the whole time we had her.

Well, it is the end of one chapter in our lives and the beginning of a new. I have mourned for Cherry, who she was in our lives and in our hearts and also for the life that we had with her. She represented our early, independent life together. Now, we begin a new chapter. I'm excited about it and look forward to it very much. But I will always have a special place in my heart for her and those sweet beginnings.