96 tears

 This has been one of the hardest days of our lives

    I don' think I have cried this much since my brother Dennis died, Emily went away to school, and Julia went to Switzerland.  Not at the same time, though.

    When the girls left, I would wander the house and go into their rooms, cry a little bit, then wander the house.  I spent most of the day doing that today, wandering.

    I just cried when Dennis died.  He was only 52, and I still miss him.

    The advantage to my tears with Julia and Emily is I always knew we would see them again.

    But my tears, our tears, for Corki are tears of knowing we won't have the pleasure of seeing that beautiful girl again.

    We got Corki in August, 2015.  She was rescued from a kill shelter in Selma, Alabama.  We adopted her through a small dog rescue group.  She is listed as 5 years old on the papers, which means she is about 12.

    They brought Corki for a visit.....and she never left.

    The lady who came along said Corki had a preference for men, and boy did she!  She followed me everywhere, much to Jackie's chagrin.  When I sat at the computer, she lay next to me.  When I ate breakfast, she was there beside me.  When I went to the bathroom, she would lay on her bed out side the door and wait for me.

    I told Jackie one reason  for all that attention is I can get down on the floor and pet her, but Jackie can't. 

    When Corki first came we had a crate for her.  She would go into the crate at night and during the day when we were not home.  After about 2 weeks of this, one night she stopped, looked at me and I could read her mind:  "Don't you trust me yet?"  The crate was gone the next day.

    She had a couple of accidents in the house.  Same day, a day we went out and I did not let her out before we left.  It was my fault.

    We never hit her, and very seldom yelled at her....except when she was in my garden eating strawberries or under my feet when I was cooking.  I would look at her and say "go away" in a stern voice and she would walk out, look over her shoulder and her eyes would be so sad.  Every go away ended with a long petting spell.

    One Christmas the girls got her a snowman outfit and she hated it!  Same with the bow ties for her ears.  She had no need of decoration.

    Twice she robbed our plates.  One time I had a couple of pieces of salami on my plate and left it on the table for a second.  John and Jackie started laughing and saying, "Corki!  Corki!"  I came out to see her mouth with salami hanging out both sides!  It was so funny, you could not get mad.

    Jackie did not keep an eye on a sandwich a couple of weeks ago and Corki snatched the meat out of that faster than Jackie could react.

    She was not perfect.  Many a female guests had their legs humped, and I think Carrie, or maybe  Beth,  even got an arm hump!  I always thought it weird for a girl dog to do that.

    Corki was not brave. 

    One night, during a thunderstorm, she hopped up in bed and snuggled between Jackie and me.

    At night when she went out, she always checked to make sure someone was with her.

    And while she barked a lot at other dogs, if we were walking past a house with a huge dog out, her pace would quicken and her mouth stayed closed.

    On our walks, she would  constantly look back to make sure someone was there.

    Recently she lost most of her hearing, but if you talked loud enough, she would hear you.  

    She especially enjoyed barking at the dogs across the street....even when they were not out. 

    Corki went in for a routine surgery Thursday, April 7.  The vet's office called and said everything went well.....2 tumors removed, teeth cleaned, skin tags zapped off.  She came through the surgery fine.

    Jackie had a doctor appointment in DeKalb at 3:30, and we were scheduled to pick up Corki at 4:30.  While in the waiting room, the clinic called and the doctor said Corki had taken a turn for the worse within the last hour,

    After leaving the doctor's office, Jackie and I stopped at the animal clinic.  Corki was getting x rays to see why her breathing was so labored.  They brought here out and put her on the table and we got to visit with her for 15 minutes or so.

    Corki had gone outside to the bathroom, and come back in.  She was fine.  But in the crate later she was down on her side, taking short breaths.  Her lungs were filling up with fluid.  They were giving her oxygen and pumped in some lasix to help with the fluid retention.

    The staff told us to come back at 6:30 and pick her up.  If she was not better, then we were to take her to an animal hospital as the clinic does not have overnight staff.

    Emily, Julia and I started back to the clinic at about 5:30 but half way  there the doc called and said Corki had just passed.  Corki's condition just continued to deteriorate.

    When we got there, she was on a padded table, head on a pillow, eyes open but lifeless....covered in a pretty blanket.  She almost looked alive.  I almost felt we could take her home and she would wake up and all would be fine.

    I did not call Jackie.  I lold the girls not to call her.  We would tell her in person.

    I am glad Jackie and I topped when we did.  I am not sure she would have known we were there later.  But I promised Corki I would never leave her, and I can't help but think I broke that promise.  She died among strangers and I should have been there, we should have been there.

    We've cried a lot today.....when she wasn't there for breakfast and morning bathroom routine, when Jackie had no Corki to share her lunch with, when we read comment from folks on Facebook, when we don't hear the patter of her feet.

    One of Emily'sfriend posted this:  Don't forget:  Somewhere between hello and goodbye there is love, so much love.

    How true.  We all loved her so much, we all miss her so much.  And we know she loved us.

Peace and Love .  Pray for Ukraine

Look at that tongue!

June, 2016

Can you tell she hated this?

She helped me in the garden

We don't know if she ever saw snow before coming to  us

A puppachino treat

This past Christmas

She loved her puppachinos from Starbucks!