in memorarium

I'm going to be merciless today and make you look at many pictures, just because this is my blog and I feel like it. Today, Andy and I took our faithful dog Emma to the vet to be put to sleep. It was really hard. We got her from the Humane Society as an older puppy ten years ago this month (I blame her lack of training on her age, certainly not any deficit on our part--ha!). She was with us through two moves (one temporary, in between homes), three babies, and was only not with us when we went to Pasadena (thank you again and again and again to the Elliotts for taking her in while we were gone). Last week, we got confirmation from the vet that Emma was dying of cancer and we brought her home on hospice. Yesterday we decided that we needed to let her go, and this morning we did. We wept. Emma was very calm; she trusted us to the end. For all her issues, she has always been just about the nicest dog on the planet. And here are pictures.

OK, seriously, I do not know why Blogger puts my pictures up backwards from how I actually uploaded them. So I apologize for them being completely mixed up.

Emma felt she had a moral obligation to attack this strange orange monster which was eating our children. She always went for the wheels:
Oh yeah, same issue with their toy lawnmowers:
See, this is back in Lumberton. She loved to sit at the front door and watch the street through the glass. She also loved to climb up on the couch and sleep right here in the sunbeam:
Remember those Johnny Jump-Up bouncy seat/swings? We'd put Michael in his and Emma would intentionally come and lie down underneath him. And he would jump on her. And let me tell you, this boy was no pixie:
She looks so long-suffering, but she put herself there. Seriously.
I took this last week when we came home from the ultrasound. She wasn't too interested.
Did I mention long-suffering? She just let him do this. I think the Aunt Jenny blanket in the back had just arrived.
Never liked her bath.
This is Elanor aiding and abetting in the bath. It should have been before the wringing out picture above, Blogger, just like I uploaded it.
Emma and Michael have always had kind of a special bond. She liked to nap with him.

That's all I've got for today. Well, just should shout out an additional big thank you to my father for being here and taking the kids to the library while Andy and I went to the vet.