Rosie is gone.....

Half way up Chahalem Mountain with a perfect view of the Willamette Valley on a farm owned by the father of Brendon's sister's husband is the the final resting place of a faithful friend.

Things just got too bad for her kidneys to deal with which made a difficult decision easier. We saw her last evening in a drugged condition (because of the pain) while they dripped fluids and antibiotics to stem the infection. She looked better than we thought she might and it appeared that she knew us once she smelled our hands, but who knows. It was sad to see her in such straits.

There was no improvement this morning, so by noon when the vet called, Aleene and I had come to the same conclusion...it was time to let her go.

Last evening we had a Cinco-de-Mayo (is that how you spell the Fifth of May) supper with (again) Brendon's sister's family and another North Valley couple (former Haiti missionaries) and their two children. During the "guy's time alone" I brought up to Ron the thought of burrying Rose at his dad's farm. He went to work and made it happen. Dad Marv got the D17 Allis Chalmers front end loader to work in great spot befitting Border Collie who had seen much of the United States and walked in the Atlantic, the Pacific, the Gulf of Mexico as well as Lake Michigan. She would have been 13 in July...90+ in human years.

This morning at 9:00 a.m. five Quaker guys showed up and by 11:30 Ron, Bren and I got back in my favorite diesel truck from the storage unit...all done. Mind you, the garage is full and we have things inside the house to put together and rearrange, but things were wrapped up in short order.

So May 6, the day we have been planning for over the months, which would mark our move in date, also marks the date of the loss of a dear friend. It is Truman's first loss and he had plenty of questions and some sad moments; so in her death, Old Rose was still teaching us humans some lessons of life. What a dog.