A Loss

This is a cut-and-paste from Facebook.  I waited a week to be ready to write about Lucky's passing, but I still just don't want to try to put it in words yet.  But it needs to be told:  so this is what I can manage for now. 

Tuesday, June 23

My Lucky boy passed away in the night.

One of the last photos of us. My heart is broken. 

I woke up around 2:30 and he was not in his bed. I found him in the living room. Like most animals, I suppose he did not want to die in his den.

Today was the day we were to take him to the vet hospital. I had so hoped we could save him. But his time just ran out.

I knew he was very fragile, so yesterday I stayed home and sat with him. He liked to have his neck scratched and petted, and he would climb out of his bed and come lean against me, or lie down beside me, just asking for love. I'm so glad I was there for him and we had that time together. He loved his family, and he was loved by so many. No little dog was ever more loved, or will be so missed as this one.

Though he was weak and fragile these last couple of weeks, this little guy fought the good fight all his life. He was sick so frequently with so many things that he might easily have been frail and spiritless. But he took it all in stride and never knew he was sick. Until these last two weeks, we could not keep him from escaping the fence to chase raccoons who were twice his weight. When we took him to Park Springs Park to run, he could keep pace with Roxy, though she was three or four times larger than him and a tireless runner. He never gave up and he never slowed down, and he never for one second believed he was anything but the best damned dog there was.

And he was right.
We'll never forget him.